Very slow copying data from RAID 1 array.
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From: Ian R on 1 Dec 2007 10:59 Hi I have a 500GB RAID1 array using brand new Western Digital drives and the Sil 3114 chipset on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium system board. I use the RAID to store partition backup image files which are split into multiple 2GB segments. The backup segments total approx 70Gb. Each week I copy the image files to a removable hard drive which usually takes approx 25-30mins. However today after selecting all the segments (77GB Total) and beginning the copy, Windows is estimating over 200 minutes for the copying! I had similar trouble a few months ago so ran a disc check on the RAID array which took over 30hrs to complete! It seemed to fix whatever errors it found as since then it ran normally taking approx 25-30mins to copy the files. However today the same lengthy copying problem has recurred. Any idea what might cause this? Right now I'm thinking I'll need to reformat the drives but I'll have to buy another 500GB drive to painstakingly copy all the data off the RAID array first! Bummer! Thanks for any info. Ian
From: Arno Wagner on 1 Dec 2007 12:48 Previously Ian R <sorry(a)nospamthanks.com> wrote: > Hi > I have a 500GB RAID1 array using brand new Western Digital drives and the > Sil 3114 chipset on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium system board. > I use the RAID to store partition backup image files which are split into > multiple 2GB segments. The backup segments total approx 70Gb. > Each week I copy the image files to a removable hard drive which usually > takes approx 25-30mins. > However today after selecting all the segments (77GB Total) and beginning > the copy, > Windows is estimating over 200 minutes for the copying! > I had similar trouble a few months ago so ran a disc check on the RAID array > which took over 30hrs to complete! It seemed to fix whatever errors it > found as since then it ran normally taking approx 25-30mins to copy the > files. > However today the same lengthy copying problem has recurred. > Any idea what might cause this? > Right now I'm thinking I'll need to reformat the drives but I'll have to buy > another 500GB drive to painstakingly copy all the data off the RAID array > first! Bummer! > Thanks for any info. > Ian 30 min for 77GB is about 42MB/s. That is pretty good. 200 min is about 6MB/s. Quite slow. May be PIO instead of DMA on a disk (bad cabeling), may be excessive fragmentation. May also be bad sectors or other disk issues. Do not replace the disks before you have have diagnised the problem. At the moment it need not be the disks themselves. Arno
From: 231 on 1 Dec 2007 14:38 Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: > Previously Ian R <sorry(a)nospamthanks.com> wrote: >> Hi > >> I have a 500GB RAID1 array using brand new Western Digital drives >> and the Sil 3114 chipset on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium system board. > >> I use the RAID to store partition backup image files which are split >> into multiple 2GB segments. The backup segments total approx 70Gb. > >> Each week I copy the image files to a removable hard drive which >> usually takes approx 25-30mins. > >> However today after selecting all the segments (77GB Total) and >> beginning the copy, >> Windows is estimating over 200 minutes for the copying! > >> I had similar trouble a few months ago so ran a disc check on the >> RAID array which took over 30hrs to complete! It seemed to fix >> whatever errors it found as since then it ran normally taking approx >> 25-30mins to copy the files. > >> However today the same lengthy copying problem has recurred. > >> Any idea what might cause this? > >> Right now I'm thinking I'll need to reformat the drives but I'll >> have to buy another 500GB drive to painstakingly copy all the data >> off the RAID array first! Bummer! > 30 min for 77GB is about 42MB/s. That is pretty good. 200 min > is about 6MB/s. Quite slow. May be PIO instead of DMA on a disk Yes. > (bad cabeling), Or something else turned the DMA off. > may be excessive fragmentation. Nope, you wont get that dramatic a result from that. > May also be bad sectors or other disk issues. Yep. And the best way to check for that is the SMART report, after breaking the RAID array if necessary to do that. > Do not replace the disks before you have have diagnised the > problem. At the moment it need not be the disks themselves.
From: Ian R on 1 Dec 2007 16:19 "Arno Wagner" <me(a)privacy.net> wrote in message news:5rdl3gFskv5eU1(a)mid.individual.net... > Previously Ian R <sorry(a)nospamthanks.com> wrote: >> Hi > >> I have a 500GB RAID1 array using brand new Western Digital drives and the >> Sil 3114 chipset on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium system board. > >> I use the RAID to store partition backup image files which are split into >> multiple 2GB segments. The backup segments total approx 70Gb. > >> Each week I copy the image files to a removable hard drive which usually >> takes approx 25-30mins. > >> However today after selecting all the segments (77GB Total) and beginning >> the copy, >> Windows is estimating over 200 minutes for the copying! > >> I had similar trouble a few months ago so ran a disc check on the RAID >> array >> which took over 30hrs to complete! It seemed to fix whatever errors it >> found as since then it ran normally taking approx 25-30mins to copy the >> files. > >> However today the same lengthy copying problem has recurred. > >> Any idea what might cause this? > >> Right now I'm thinking I'll need to reformat the drives but I'll have to >> buy >> another 500GB drive to painstakingly copy all the data off the RAID array >> first! Bummer! > >> Thanks for any info. > >> Ian > > 30 min for 77GB is about 42MB/s. That is pretty good. 200 min > is about 6MB/s. Quite slow. May be PIO instead of DMA > on a disk (bad cabeling), may be excessive fragmentation. > May also be bad sectors or other disk issues. > > Do not replace the disks before you have have diagnised the > problem. At the moment it need not be the disks themselves. > > Arno > Hi Arno Thanks for replying. Ive checked all the settings for the disk drives, SATA controller and RAID controller in device manager as well as disc settings in disk management but I cant see anywhere to check or alter the transfer mode to the RAID array. I've downloaded and installed the lastest WD Data Lifeguard Tools but it didnt report any problems and it seems pretty sparse in that it doesnt seem to offer any diagnostic utilities. Are there third party utilities I can run which can check the drives while they are still part of the RAID? I'm *slowly* moving stuff off the RAID - buring to DVD-R but its painfully slow. Ive got an 18x DVD burner and with Verbatim discs I can usually burn at 18x. But tonight Nero says.. "can only write at 4x because the speed of the source data is too slow". As if I didnt know! Cheers Ian
From: Arno Wagner on 2 Dec 2007 09:45
Previously 231 <231(a)alok.com> wrote: > Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> Previously Ian R <sorry(a)nospamthanks.com> wrote: >>> Hi >> >>> I have a 500GB RAID1 array using brand new Western Digital drives >>> and the Sil 3114 chipset on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium system board. >> >>> I use the RAID to store partition backup image files which are split >>> into multiple 2GB segments. The backup segments total approx 70Gb. >> >>> Each week I copy the image files to a removable hard drive which >>> usually takes approx 25-30mins. >> >>> However today after selecting all the segments (77GB Total) and >>> beginning the copy, >>> Windows is estimating over 200 minutes for the copying! >> >>> I had similar trouble a few months ago so ran a disc check on the >>> RAID array which took over 30hrs to complete! It seemed to fix >>> whatever errors it found as since then it ran normally taking approx >>> 25-30mins to copy the files. >> >>> However today the same lengthy copying problem has recurred. >> >>> Any idea what might cause this? >> >>> Right now I'm thinking I'll need to reformat the drives but I'll >>> have to buy another 500GB drive to painstakingly copy all the data >>> off the RAID array first! Bummer! >> 30 min for 77GB is about 42MB/s. That is pretty good. 200 min >> is about 6MB/s. Quite slow. May be PIO instead of DMA on a disk > Yes. >> (bad cabeling), > Or something else turned the DMA off. >> may be excessive fragmentation. > Nope, you wont get that dramatic a result from that. Oh, yes. You can get even worse. I have seen it. Remember that this is an average over 77GB. >> May also be bad sectors or other disk issues. > Yep. And the best way to check for that is the SMART report, > after breaking the RAID array if necessary to do that. Actually the way to do this is to attach the disks to a different controller and never acess them in R/W mode. E.g. Knoppix can help here. Arno |