Norm X wrote:
On 2016-07-10 10:52 AM, Paul wrote:
Norm X wrote:
I've encountered "nvraid error" in my (hopefully fixable) install of
Win10
ultimate on my desktop. Years ago I set up a 3 drive RAID 0 storage
array
with three partitions.. Fortunately, I can still boot from the
partition
with Visa-32 installed. Using checkdisk it has discovered may errors
on the
Win10 partition. My problem is well known. I need to install more
software.
An OS that corrupts its own storage is not usable until the problem, is
fixed.

Whoops, my bad. After 8 years, I remembered how this PC was
constructed. So, I removed the HD6450 GPU, started a new Win10 install
on a partition that I saved elsewhere. This was my third attempt to
make a new free install of Win10, before July 29. A 3 drive RAID 0
storage array is a construct from hardware(3 hdd), nVidia firmware,
and nVidia software. Over years the nVidia software was not preserved
by Windows updates. I tested the three partitions and only the
Vista-32-U has enough nVidia software to be safe to use a 3 drive RAID
0 storage array. Therefor to unable one more (permanent) installation
Win10, I need to purchase a new single drive to use for install.

Please someone make a suggestion? The RAID array was made from three
Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm, ST250310AS with a listed Avg. Sequential
Mixed IO Speed 59.8MB/s

It is eight years later. Please suggests a SATA model with 1.0
terabyte and 3 or 4 times that data rate?

Thanks in advance.

Well, Robert ran off a benchmark this morning.
This is a ST1000DM003. Bandwidth at the start of the
drive is 208MB/sec or so. Since the drive could have
been on a SATA II motherboard port, the tops could be clipped
off the peaks on the left. It doesn't really run all that
much faster than SATA II. Only a hair faster.

https://s32.postimg.org/mu5q1s3zp/example.jpg

It's $52 at the moment.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148840

On sequential, you cannot go too much faster than that. More
impressive, is Seagate makes a 6TB drive that runs at the
same rates.

Paul

Thanks Paul, I just bought a 1.0 terabyte Seagate supposedly at 6 GB
speed. I brought it home to try to reconstruct my PC. The Win10 DVD said
there were problems with the new HDD. PMagic reports only 7.5 GB size
30.0 MB used and 0 free. And PMagic can do nothing.

AT startup of the install, I told it where to look for some nVidia
devices drivers. Maybe I need to download something from Seagate? But
where.


If you boot the Win10 DVD and use the Command Prompt
window on it, can you see the drive ? The tool
on there to use, is "diskpart". It is the
Command Prompt equivalent of Disk Management.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
....
exit

You can enter commands in there to create partitions,
such as make a partition which occupies the whole disk.
You have to "select a disk" or "select a partition",
before you can issue a command to a disk or issue
a command to a partition.

One command in particular you should know about, in diskpart,
is "clean" and "clean all". To use them, you must select
a disk first. (And naturally, make sure it is the correct
disk. You could easily erase the wrong one.)

The "clean" command zeroes out the MBR. That takes a
fraction of a second.

The "clean all" command, would zero every byte on the
entire 1TB drive. That takes two hours. So if you had
a half-baked GPT setup on the disk, you can remove it
with "clean all".

It's possible for a disk you purchase from someone, to
have an HPA on it (Host Protected Area). Those can be
removed from Linux, restoring full drive capacity. Even
the guy who wrote "Secure Erase", does not guarantee
that Secure Erase removes an HPA and makes the disk
like new again. So if some idiot applies an HPA
(I've done a couple :-) ), removing them can be
a chore. It's a chore, because not all motherboards
will allow you to use HPA commands. You can only
execute one HPA command per boot cycle, and a good
BIOS will use up the one command on purpose, so malware
will not be able to use the command at runtime.

On the machine I'm typing on, only one JMicron port
supports my HPA experiments. All the Intel chip ports
are permanently closed to HPA.

*******

You need an NVidia driver (i.e. a driver for the Southbridge
port - Windows has some that are built in). Nothing is
absolutely needed from Seagate for a 1TB drive. For
data drives larger than 2.2TB, there are some optional
materials on the Seagate site in that case. Your drive
is only 1TB and just regular tools should be good enough.
Modern OSes with GPT capability, don't need Seagate
optional materials either (you can make a 6TB partition
if you want).

If I was in your situation, I would

1) Boot my Ubuntu or Linux Mint DVD.
2) sudo apt-get install disktype --- a tiny program
sudo disktype /dev/sda --- gives summary of
disk structure
3) sudo fdisk /dev/sda
p --- prints MBR for you
q

Here's some HPA info.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area

This is an example of a typical command while
working with an HPA. You do one of these, then
reboot, as you cannot issue a second HPA related
command in the same session. You cannot insert
an HPA and remove an HPA, without rebooting.
It's a hardware trap door, and not something
you can program around in the Linux kernel or
anything. It's the way the hardware works
(on purpose).

sudo hdparm --yes-i_know_what_i_am_doing -N p# /dev/sdX

I remember it cost me a reboot, learning that
I had to add the idiotic

--yes-i_know_what_i_am_doing

to make the command work :-) Of course I don't
know what I'm doing. Why make it obvious ? :-)

HTH,
Paul