Re: re-stripiing sata drives

Hi Mick -
if you have a MAC G5, you have either a Sonnet X4P (not E4), and if you have a Cal Digit, you have a Fasta 4x.

Both cards used the same chipset - made by Silicon Image. ProMax experienced the exact same thing that I did, which is why they split the drive array into 2 volumes - 5 drives on one, and 5 drives on the other. The Silicon Image Chipset (the Sil3124) has an inherent problem, where the entire RAID group becomes corrupt, and disappears. You think that it is a bad drive, but it is not - it's a fault with the Sil3124. Your ProMax chassis is made by PDE in southern california. It has the mating port multipler chipset from Silicon Image in it, so you can use a single cable per chassis to run 5 drives.

I know this product well. EVERYONE that used an eSATA port mutliplier - Cal Digit, Sonnet, DatOptic, Dulce - all have the exact same problem. The drives ultimately disappear.

When you stripe 10 drives together at RAID 0, you are BEGGING for trouble, and you will ultimately lose all of your media. The same problem happens with 2 groups of 5, but at least you get to keep half of your media. Of course, with only 5 drives stripped RAID 0, you barely get over 200Mb/sec, so you can barely do uncompressed HD. For this configuration, you need all 10 drives, but let me assure you they will fail, and you will get screwed.

So what is the correct solution - a modern RAID 5 array that uses a host controller from ATTO, Areca or Cal Digit. These new (expensive) products do not suffer the problems that the Silicon Image port multipler chipset had (your ProMax).

Feel free to delete the RAID groups, and restripe all 10 drives together as one big RAID 0 group, so you can get about 300Mb/sec, and get sustained performance to do uncompressed HD. Your array will fail in about 6 months, and you will lose everything.

This is the very reason Cal Digit no longer sells the S2VR (which made them famous at the beginning). There was no fix, becuase NO ONE could get cooperation from Silicon Image.

Bob Zelin