Mac Pro (early 2008) RAID Card problem

[mintnick]

Hello (hopefully someone can shed some light on my issue)

I own as above a MAC PRO (Early 2008) this has a RAID card installed along with two 15k.7 cheetah hdd (320gb) and a spare drive, (which i made a regular drive)
a while ago i had to replace the RAID card battery, so i did this, over a year later the same thing happened again, but as previous just left it and the system seemed fine for ages, until last night i was working in PHOTOSHOP and everything just froze and the screen kind of appeared GREEN, could not do a single thing. So restarted the mac, this time grey screen for ages and a message appeared, (macs version of blue screen) (see attached).

I restarted the machine and this time a flashing question mark folder!
could not do a thing.

so i found my copy of snow leopard and got the computer to run this and at least launch the DISK UTILITY and (Interestingly in the drop down menu RAID UTILITY was also in the menu) but it did not matter which utility i used the (RAID or DISK) neither could see any of drives, just the dvd drive.

so looked around on you tube and various forums and discovered if i take out the RAID CARD and re-plug the main lead from the RAID card back in to the LOGIC BOARD I would be reverting the MAC to a normal regular non-RAID computer.

After performing this HARDWARE task and inserting all three HDD, and running the DISK utility from the drop down menu via the SNOW LEOPARD disc.
(interestingly since the RAID card had been removed the RAID UTILITY from the drop down menu no longer appeared). running disk utility I can now only see the regular (spare) hdd and DVD Drive, but the two RAID HDD , again, still do not show up DISK UTILITY?

O.K. so i could chuck out the RAID card (AND RAID HDD) and just go with a regular set-up, and run a back restore from Time Machine on a NEW hdd purchased.

but what is wrong with the RAID, is the card at fault or are both HDD used for the RAID knackered? can i perform any tests, to see whats what?

thanks for your help in advanced.

 

[OS6-OSX]

First you should state what RAID card it is and which slot it was in.
If it is an Apple card, many may say "that's" your problem! Then again many have posted using Apple RAID cards and have zero issues.
What speed were you getting from the RAID setup? If all else fails you can software RAID 0 the two HD's. Should be fast enough for photo work. Just make sure you have a back up for the RAID.

 

[mintnick]

hello OS6-OSX
firstly, thanks for replying.

yeah, i have also heard of people saying, if its an apple card, 'theres your problem' well before yesterday i would say i was in the camp saying 'nothing wrong with the apple card' had it ages! well today that is different :-(

i think I understand your reply, (I'm not totally clued up on mac computers especially RAID systems - always working things out in a logic way - trial and error most of the time).

The RAID was set-up in a way that it just mired its self and did seem very quick compared to my newish work Top end (non-RAIDed) IMAC. so the speed i'm actually unsure the two drives installed dealing with the RAID were two 15k.7 cheetah, (i had this other drive as a SPARE, what is that, did i need this? ) i made it a regular drive just to make use of it, was i wrong to do this?

what software is out there that will see these drives that i cannot via DISK UTILITY?

my only back up for the RAID is an external Drive working via TIME MACHINE.
(thankfully this did do back-ups! )

please confirm if you can, if i were to ditch the raid card (is it worth anything to any one) and reconfig the hardware inside the mac to non-RAID status as previously mentioned in my first post and installed a new purchased hard drive, will the 'time machine restore' function actually work? any tips?

 

[OS6-OSX]

I do not use Time Machine so I can't comment on that
If you purchase a new drive it should be an SSD for the OS. Place the 6G SSD on one of these http://www.apricorn.com/products/desktop-ssd-hdd-upgrade-kits.html to get 6G speed. If you ditch the RAID card you have at least one slot for it.
Use the Restore tab in "disk utilities" to copy old OS HD > new SSD
That will get your 3,1 partly out of the dark ages.
Two utility disks you should have in your tool box are Drive Genius http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php and Techtool Pro http://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro.
There is a way in Drive Genius to clone two drives that are not the same size.
So your 4 bay HD configuration would look like this:
1. OS back up drive 2. RAID bac up drive 3.-4. Ceetahs in software RAID 0
If you have any utility apps on the iMac, connect it to the MP in "Target" mode and run them on the drives.
Also, if you have a usb2 to sata adapter, connect the Cheetahs to the iMac and run apps on them that way.

 

[mintnick]

hi again 0s6 osx

thanks for your reply, interesting ideas, i need to consider.
i have opted today ( before i saw your post ) to purchase a cheapish HDD
1tb just to get things moving again, as I really need the mac up and running.
(if anything to satisfy me that there was nothing else wrong with the mac)

i do believe it was harddrive failure in the RAID somewhere.

i have removed the RAID card and RAID HDDs x2.

and in the process of installing snow leopard onwards ( boring task )
to the current version, since the time machine restore got to about 9%
and crashed several times. ( yes, i tried several times! ) before resorting
back to the long way round fix!

thanks for you advice! and information on disk utilities.

once i am somewhat back up and running, i will investigate the problem drives/system further.

 

[mintnick]

issues with graphics card? - nivida GeForce 8800 GT

hello os6

i am now running mountain lion and now it seems i have issues
with the computer freezing and screen flickering and displaying random distorted blocks.

do i have video graphics card issues or is my new hdd not up for it?
i have already had to force desert the mac already, even re located the video card to see if this would help, but the same problems, not always
(as i am managing to write this)

i have nivida eForce 8800 GT - any reported problems?

any help much appreciated!

for some unknown reason having a right spat of issues with mac all of a sudden in the last few days! - never had this much bother before?!!?!?!

 

[OS6-OSX]

Mavericks is a ram hog! You don't list how much ram your system has.
You can search on this site 8800gt issues.
You should wipe everything.
Get your system to 10.6.8 (last SL)
Get all apps up and running
If you continue with RAID try the internal SW RAID 0 with the two Cheetahs
If all is fine, back up that system
Then try 10.8 on that backed up system (HD). Actually update that back up system to 10.8. If it works well then fine. If not you still have your 10.6.8!
I have a dual boot system. 10.6.8 on one drive and 10.8.5 on another.

 

[mintnick]

wrote a massive post, but the system logged me off from the forums agrhrhrh


so basically the video card was at fault and i stuck it in the oven trick, yes it worked and i re applied the thermal paste. cleared out loads of dust from video card heat sink as well, even got RAID HDD to work again, via disk repair and permissions using the snow leopard dvd disc utility.

how long i have left, not sure? just buying me time!