Why RAID controllers & SATA plugs are so badly made and why I'll never use RAID again

[arch0nmyc0n]

I don't know much about RAID, but I've meesed around with it in the past here and there, everytime I did something wrong or a cable was unplugged, it warned me... also, you must be using the wrong type of RAID there is one (mentioned before) 0+1 I think it was, that with multiple drive one can go down (unplugged) and you can rebuild it with a brand new drive(plug it in). Again I'm not knowledgable enough to tell you specifics but the guys around here should be able to point you to some pages...

The SATA connectors, yeah I've found some of them to be REALLY flimsy and for once I do agree with you. I don't like using glue on drives but it certainly can help the situation. But I found seperately obtained cables are usually much higher quality and often fit much better, espeically the power cables. I've had some power supplies with really cheap connectors on the, I just plug in one of these and it usually clicks in just fine.

[Kodiak]

Doesn't matter what raid you are using when it comes to software corruption. I like raid 0 because it does improve performance considerabley. Only sure way to keep your data safe is to have a constant backup. Only sure thing about a computer is that it will crash sooner or later.

[clauded]

never the less these pitifull sata cables are a f****k shame and yes i have had them come in for repair just because they had fallen off

[jaimicook]

I guess I'm unlucky. I have 3 SATA drives (2 in a raid 1 arrangement) for the best part of a year and I've had no problems at all with them. I do agree, however that the SATA plugs have no locking system at all

[The_Silent_One_1]

As for locking... some cables do.

My Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI Boards came with 4 red and 4 yellow SATA cables. The Yellow Ones were for the onboard Nvidia Controller and they snapped in with a little metal latch. They don't come out very easy. I also believe that my new DFI-CRX3200 board has some yellow SATA cables that click in somehow.

As for RAID. I am running 4 Maxtor SATA 300GB's in 0+1 on my server and one of them failed this week. It was kind of scary because I hadn't had this experience before, but I backed up the most critical data to my main station, than identified the failed drive, un-pluuged and replaced and the RAID automatically re-built it. (Also a Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI using the NVidia RAID Controller.)

[gemstone]

In my experience the mainboard connections are not an issue it's the drive connector which naturally works looser than it starts off and often becomes sufficiently loose to be disconnected, the entire plug\socket design is, from a design engineering point of view, pathetic. The only people who seem to have understood this is WD whose connector for the data cable is a large blue plastic block which has large locating lugs on either side of the connection so it seats firmly into the back of the drive, you have to use a molex for power since the narrow SATA power connector is now covered but at least it's a 'thought about' design not just a herd instinct follow the leader like all the other manufacturers do.
Anyone who has not had a SATA data connector vibrate out of contact has been very lucky.
Even the ends of the cables are sometimes designed with little or no thought, the data plug on some has a small plastic lug on either side of the body which makes it impossible to insert the flat power connector next to it, fine if the drive has a molex too but most dont so you have to trim the connector block on the data cable so the power will fit.
It needs design work and standardization, some of my clients won't have SATA installed again due to the problems with drives being suddenly 'missing' and insist on going back to IDE.

[Shalafi]

I agree that the SATA connectors do suck, but running an array in RAID 0 is not a good idea if you expect any kind of fault tolerance or reliability. RAID 0 is for speed plain and simple.

If you want your array to be robust enough to handle the scenario you are describing, do not use an on-board RAID solution on the consumer level mobo's, unless it is a high-end board with a reputable chipset, such as one from Adaptec. Secondly, use a fault tolerant RAID configuration like RAID 1 or RAID 5, or if you have the extra cash for the drives and really need the speed, RAID 0+1. Anything less is just playing on the law of averages and you are inviting inevitable disaster.

Yes, I am quite aware that many people run RAID 0 with no issues, but this type of failure is an all too common scenario, and a much less common scenario when using a fault tolerant array with a decent/reputable RAID controller.

[Kodiak]

OK Fault tolerance. In most cases, 9/10, when a customer comes to you what is the problem? Is it because the drive failed? Is it because the system is so infested with spyware and viruses or they installed something that killed there PC? In my experience it has be viruses and spyware so where does Raid 1 or 5 help, not one bit. A good backup regiment is the only way to go wether it be full backups daily or full and daily incs. I do agree the sata connections are crappy and we are starting to see the metal clips now though.

[Shalafi]

That wasn't the scenario described by the OP, and to be honest I haven't been a bench tech in 7-8 years, so I am speaking from a corporate Net Admin perspective. What I said is just good solid advice IMHO.

If a person's system is that hammered with malware, they have much larger problems to deal with first, before deciding on which RAID array config suits them best..