Can a RAID 4 disk setup crash if only 1 hard disk fails?

Posted by Steve Rodrigue on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Steve Rodrigue
Published on 2012-11-26T15:49:53Z Indexed on 2012/11/27 17:06 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 216

Filed under:

raid

I am a web developer. I have not much experience in hardware. For this reason, I use managed servers.

This morning, one of the drives in our setup failed. However, the full site went down. I asked my web host what happened and he replied that the hard disk failed in such a way that the RAID controller couldn't work properly. The array was set up as RAID 4.

Do you guys ever seen that before? Is it possible?

Thanks for any help on this guys. I need to know if my web host is honest with me.

Related posts about raid

Booting from integrated RAID controller when another RAID controller is installed in a PCIe slot

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a GA MA785GT UD3H motherboard with Windows Server 2008 R2 installed on a RAID1 using the on-board RAID controller. I have now installed a RocketRaid 2680 controller and set up a RAID5 for all my data to be stored on. Unfortunately I now cannot boot from the RAID1 anymore, the PC is trying… >>> More
Onboard RAID vs Software RAID

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
My motherboard, an Asus M4a79t Deluxe, advertises RAID 0/1/5 capabilities. My limited understanding is that onboard RAID is better than software RAID. Is this necessarily true? Is an onboard RAID controller closer in performance to a software controller or a dedicated hardware controller? >>> More
RAID-1 and regular drive removal (using RAID-1 as a backup measure)

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Is using mdadm's RAID-1 of 2 partitions (one on laptop's internal HDD, one on external HDD) a good idea. I want the system to work as RAID-1 if both drives are present, work as regular volume (degradad RAID-1) if external HDD is unplugged and quickly resync when I plug external HDD again. Questions: Is… >>> More
Explain difference in SQLIO numbers for RAID 0 versus RAID 5 over 6 disks

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
When using the SQLIO benchmark tool on a 4-core Dell server with 6 15k 450GB (fast) drives, RAID 0, we found the max throughput was 2MB per second. But when configured as RAID 5, we get 30 MB per second. It seems that the RAID controller, Dell Perc 5i integrated controller, is maxing out the… >>> More
RAID 5 RECONSTRUCT with RAID Reconstructor

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have Dell Poweredge server 2600 with Raid 5 in 3 hard drive Scsi 36gb each, it was fail to boot sinc the third drive is offline. I attached Sata card adapter to Sata hard drive and install OS SERVER 2003 to it, downloaded drivers for Raid and everything goes fine when I use recovery data software… >>> More

Developer IT