scsi

I used the controller to configure 4 identical drives RAID 01 for the purpose of getting a modest performance boost coupled with protection from drive failure. Install and configuration using the card all went OK (the drives I used were new FDB Maxtor). I then reinstalled XP and apps, and otherwise set up the machine to my tastes, an exercise which takes a non-trivial amount of time no matter how you approach it. All was fine.

A few months later, a drive failed, but I was protected, right? Nope. The controller not only did not detect the problem via its software (which I regularly ran to determine how the RAID array was doing - always "optimal"), but the way I found out that I had a drive problem was that the system refused to reboot (on a warm restart at that). I couldn't even boot in safe mode from the distribution CD. The controller BIOS still reported all drives "optimal" so I didn't even suspect the drive system was the problem (the boot sequence stopped while installing drivers, and seemed to have gotten past the Adaptec, so the natural assumption was that something else had failed, such as the video card). Since everything else checked out, the final step was to remove the drives and run CRC checks (using my wife's 5 year old dinosaur). This testing revealed the fact that a drive was bad. With the bad drive removed (accompanied by the angst of trying to make sure each of the remaining 3 drives went back into its appointed location), the system came up. Voila? ... no. I ran CHKDSK as a precaution and it failed catastrophically, hanging the machine ... so much for mirroring. The card evidently mirrored corrupt data onto a drive that tests OK otherwise. Since the system did come up, I was at least able to recover my data, but that's been it.

I got this card to protect myself from the very kind of system rebuild I am now faced with, and by that measure the controller has failed miserably. I now plan to just go back to my earlier non-RAID setup, where I had a drive dedicated to backing up data. I'm just chalking this experience up to money wasted on a mediocre product not ready for prime time. I mostly regret all of the lost hours this rather pricey piece of junk has cost me. I think I will avoid Adaptec products in the future.