Drive in Raid 0 volume failing

[Calibax]

Hi, A new icon (two drives,one red) has appeared on my taskbar with the msg
A drive in a RAID 0 volume is failing. Try to back up data immediately.
As far as I know I have not got a Raid configuration set up!
I have run CHKDSK which showed no problems. Should I be worried? I think I have got most of my essential files backed up already.

[VHG]

Have you got a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device with two disks in it attached to your network?

[Calibax]

No VHG, it's a stand-alone desktop. No Network.

[VHG]

Well I suppose the stand alone desktop COULD have two disks in it running raid, though this is not very usual.

What PC is it (make, model, other details).

If it is running Windows use the "System Information" option to see if it says you are running raid.

[ABerrant]

Double-clicking the taskbar icon should bring up the raid properties.

[Calibax]

Dell Dimension 9100
Pentium 4 3.20 GHz
2.00 GB Ram
Windows XP (home)
Version 2002 SP3

No sign of anything that say it's running Raid

[Calibax]

Clicking on error icon brings up Intel Matrix Storage console screen.
Shows tree with 2 Maxtor 6L160M0 drives in error though where or what these are I have no idea!

[ABerrant]

Somewhat similar to this then...

http://forums.overclo...x.php?showtopic=75646

[Calibax]

Yes Aberrant, similar to that except there's nothing below the 'raid' drives and both are marked as in error.
Should I mark them as normal?

[VHG]

Did a search on Dell Dimension 9100 and seems some DID come with RAID already set up as a default.

But as it is RAID 0 is one disk crashes you lose all the data on both disk, SO BACK UP QUICKLY.

See this web page

http://reviews.cnet.c...9100-review-39192184/

Text says:

"One of the more interesting inclusions in our 9100 was two 160GB hard disks set up in a RAID 0 (also known as 'stripe') configuration. This treats the two drives as a single contiguous hard disk, switching between the two while writing a stream of data. In theory, this increases the speed of your hard-disk activity because two drive heads are skittering across the platters at the same time. In practical terms, you might see a drive performance increase of around 30 per cent using a RAID 0 array. On the downside, because data is split almost at random between the two disks, if one breaks down you effectively lose all your data on both disks"

[Calibax]

Thanks VHG, that seems likely. Funny I've had the pc for years and never knew! Will make sure everything is backed up. PC is about 6 years old so probably due for a new one. I'll have to treat myself, if there are any left that haven't been looted!
Thanks again VHG and ABerrant.