Barracud IVs Incompatibe with HPT370 RAID!

[lammypie 0]

I thought I'd warn you guys that there are SERIOUS issues with the Seagate Barracuda IV hard disks and the HPT370 RAID controller.

 

Using a RAID 0 configuration the RAID 0 will perform almost 50% SLOWER than using a single drive!!!!!!

I have tested this using HPT bios and driver combos 1.03b1, 1.11.0402, 2.0.1015, 2.0.1019. It just doesn't work. Other users have experienced the same thing over at the forums at www.storagereview.com.

 

Also the 2.0.1019 HPT Bios will limit the cuda4s to 66Mbs (DMA Mode4) and will crash the RAID 0 array on reboot.

I am still waiting for a reply from Highpoint and Seagate tech support.

 

For more info and proofcheck out this thread at the Icrontic forums which included clear and detailed ATTO benchmarks.

http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=15092&goto=newpost

 

If you use the HPT370 controller I recomend you DO NOT purchase the Barracdua IVs like I did. Especially if you intend to use the RAID 0.

[Mua_Dib 0]

I'm having drama's with a Promise Fastrak100 "lite" controller (A7V333) and 2 x 40gig Seagate Barracuda IV's. XP wont install. Tried all the obvious fixes;- New cables, F6 then driver disk, changed CD-ROM's, updated BIOS'es blah blah etc etc etc......

 

Gonna try 2 IBM's.....

 

-Mua

[BladeRunner 0]

I hate being the bearer of bad news

It would appear that the Seagate drives are not in any way or form optimised for RAID operation.

It doesn't matter which RAID controller you are using, Highpoint, Promise, Adaptec etc.

Any RAID configuration with these Seagates performs very poorly.

 

Seagate are aware of the issue and will fix it for the next generation of HD's.

Most people are hoping that a simply firmware upgrade in the future will fix this problem, as when in single disk configurations these units perform very well.

 

Love them or hate them, the IBM's are still the best drive for IDE RAID configurations.

Personally I love them, due to me only seeing two failures out of the 75+ I've had contact with.

The Maxtor's apparently are also good in RAID configurations.

[Alien 1]

What about the WD "special edition" drives? I've read that they're rather spiffy on their own, but haven't seen any reports of them used in RAID.

[BladeRunner 0]

Oh yes, forgot about those WD's everybody's favourite drive at the moment.

There was a site that had a review of various drives in RAID configurations, I'll have to see if I can find it.

I'm sure the WD's were excellent performers too, I think it's only Seagate who are having RAID issues at the moment.

[Brian Frank 0]

I've heard that Seagate was supposedly putting out new drives that have the RAID 0 thing fixed. Unfortunately, I have no clue where I saw this...Anyway, the WD special edition drives are very tempting with that 8 meg cache.

[thekourier 0]

I'm running an IDE RAID-0 array with Western Digital 400BB drives (40GB/7200RPM). Works great and very quiet. From my first-hand experience and what I've read from others, if you're expecting RAID-0 to double your disk read speed forget about it. My RAID array is extremely fast for writing, but I don't notice a heck of a lot of improvement in reading. Windows doesn't load 2x faster and Counterstrike doesn't load 2x faster either. There's some small improvement, but nothing extreme. Writing on the other hand is really quick. I do some video work, and that array will slurp data as fast as I can send it.

 

I've heard really bad things about the IBM 60GXP series. A whole lot of dead drives being reported. I just bought one of the new 120GXP series, the 120GB model. It runs cool, and extremely quiet, seems pretty fast too. But every so often it will make a little screetching noise. I was reading about someone else who called IBM on this and they said it's the drive up[censored] some internal statistics. Personally I'd stick with WD drives. This IBM seems good, but with all the failures of the 60GXP series, I'm not betting the farm on it.

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

I am sorry to hear that lammypie, thats definatly a shot to the gut. Hopefully seagate will get this resolved with a firmware upgrade.

 

 

Quote:

The Maxtor's apparently are also good in RAID configurations.

 

They sure are. I run 2-40 GB Maxtor D40X-6L's and a promise fast track 100. I experience a noticable increase in speed. Will I grab a raid array for my next computer? We shall see, but at this point in time, I have 4 HDD and 2 opticals. The choice was obvious.

 

 

Quote:

I'm having drama's with a Promise Fastrak100 "lite" controller (A7V333) and 2 x 40gig Seagate Barracuda IV's. XP wont install. Tried all the obvious fixes;- New cables, F6 then driver disk, changed CD-ROM's, updated BIOS'es blah blah etc etc etc......

 

I had the same problem with an IWILL SideRAID 100. Windows would install ok, but on reboot, it would lock. This was with new drivers, bios's and even having a look at IWILL's message board pages. So I grabbed a promise in replacement.

 

Quote:

if you're expecting RAID-0 to double your disk read speed forget about it

 

I dont think one should assume that either. The write speeds are better than single drives and, from what I have found, the speed will degrade from rounded cables (ATA133 rounded, copper covered blah blah...) and benifit from regular IDE cables (HD TACH). If anyone reading this wants to grab a raid array, do your homework first, it will save you some money and time.

[mad2moons 0]

i'm new to RAID but have just bought a raid msi k7 ultra aru. What does that mean 4 hdd and 2 opticals, also does any1 know of a good site where I can learn about setting up raid, advantages and disadvantages. thx

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

4 HDD means 4 hard drives. 2 opticals mean I have a burner and a DVD-rom. Basic IDE only supports 4 IDE devices. I could have gotten an IDE controller but whats the point if I had 2 40 gig HDD (Hard Disk Drives)

 

http://www.ozhardware.com.au/articles.php?articleId=17

 

That was posted the other day in the news section, but the best thing to do would be to consult you manual. Maybe even grab a manula from promise online (PDF) even if yours isnt a promise controller. It gives a great decription of everything.

 

http://www.promise.com/support/file/PromiseArrayManagementUtilityv5.pdf

[mad2moons 0]

thx