Explorer randomly hangs after startup, bad disk in RAID5 suspected but all disks report as good

HeWhoThreadsLightly · December 12, 2021, 4:09pm

I have had an ongoing problem with explorer that has it randomly hang shortly after login since october. I suspect hard drive 2 is faulty as it is reporting “The device, \Device\Harddisk2\DR2, is not ready for access yet.” however i have been unable to ID the physical drive as all disks in the array report the same name and ID.

The disk is part of a windows software raid5 cached by primocache all 3 disks report as good in crystaldsikinfo running on Windows 7 Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601.

Merged images due to media restrictions

DISKPART and wmic

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          223 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 2    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 3    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>wmic diskdrive get caption, deviceid, size
Caption                                   DeviceID            Size
KINGSTON  SV300S37A240G SATA Disk Device  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0  240054796800
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1  8001560609280
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2  8001560609280
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3  8001560609280

Initial problem:
Explorer(desktop) hung at startup two times in a row and inbuilt windows programs could not be started windows update, control panel, explorer(for folders) but 3ed party programs could be started chrome, malwarebytes, primocache etc. Control alt delete worked and explorer could be restarted from task manager but hang again after a short time(40s) other programs like control panel could not be started from task manager(they started according to task manager but no windows opened). A mechanical spinning noise was heard from the front of the computer at ~10 min after startup. Immediately afterwards all inbuilt programs I had tried to start opened at once and the computer behaved normally.

Additional log files can be found on github
github DOT com SLASH HeWhoThreadsLightly SLASH ExplorerHangsonStratup

Chkdsk20160104170811.log
CrystalDiskInfo.txt
SystemInformation.txt
event-log-after-boot-with-fix.evtx
identifying disk 2.txt
notes.txt
ntbtlog.txt
scf.log
sfc-terminal.txt
wmic.txt

Four0Four · December 12, 2021, 4:36pm

Run the following commands from an elevated command prompt

Powershell.exe
Get-PhysicalDisk | Select -Prop DeviceId,FriendlyName,SerialNumber

Is DeviceId #2 a physical disk or a primocache virtual drive? If it’s a Seagate drive you can match the S/N. If it’s a primocache drive I’d look to see if there are any controller log file files in the software.

Any bad block disk errors in Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System? Tried to look at your github but repo doesn’t exist.

HeWhoThreadsLightly · December 13, 2021, 1:32pm

Repository should be visible now, default settings had it set as private.

PS did not recognize the command

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-PhysicalDisk | Select -Prop DeviceId,FriendlyName,SerialNumber
The term 'Get-PhysicalDisk' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Chec
k the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:17
+ Get-PhysicalDisk <<<<  | Select -Prop DeviceId,FriendlyName,SerialNumber
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Get-PhysicalDisk:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Did you mean:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-PSDrive

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root                                               CurrentLocation
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----                                               ---------------
Alias                                  Alias
C                 188,87         34,70 FileSystem    C:\                                               Windows\system32
cert                                   Certificate   \
D                                      FileSystem    D:\
Env                                    Environment
Function                               Function
HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
M               11022,89      11332,85 FileSystem    M:\
Variable                               Variable
WSMan                                  WSMan

I don’t have any other match for Get-P.*(disk|drive)

I have another command i ran before:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-WmiObject win32_diskDrive


Partitions : 1
DeviceID   : \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Model      : KINGSTON  SV300S37A240G SATA Disk Device
Size       : 240054796800
Caption    : KINGSTON  SV300S37A240G SATA Disk Device

Partitions : 2
DeviceID   : \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Model      : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device
Size       : 8001560609280
Caption    : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device

Partitions : 2
DeviceID   : \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3
Model      : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device
Size       : 8001560609280
Caption    : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device

Partitions : 2
DeviceID   : \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4
Model      : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device
Size       : 8001560609280
Caption    : ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device

I don’t see any reports of bad blocks I see:

Events

NTFS E55 Note last message stopped after a chkdsk run.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Ntfs
Date:          2021-12-09 15:04:47
Event ID:      55
Task Category: (2)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Orion-PC
Description:
The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume Mass storage. 
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Ntfs" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49156">55</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>2</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2021-12-09T14:04:47.325513000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>679163</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Orion-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>Mass storage</Data>
    <Binary>05000C000200380002000000370004C000000000020100C000000000000000000000000000000000BB00170089FB0C0000000800</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

AMD Sata Reset device E129

Log Name:      System
Source:        amd_sata
Date:          2021-12-13 14:11:58
Event ID:      129
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Orion-PC
Description:
Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="amd_sata" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="32772">129</EventID>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2021-12-13T13:11:58.294694800Z" />
    <EventRecordID>700162</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Orion-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\Device\RaidPort0</Data>
    <Binary>0F001800010000000000000081000480040000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002000000810004800000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

And disk 2 not ready for access yet E15 last seen yesterday but no new events today.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Disk
Date:          2021-12-12 15:54:06
Event ID:      15
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Orion-PC
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk2\DR2, is not ready for access yet.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Disk" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49156">15</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2021-12-12T14:54:06.297315600Z" />
    <EventRecordID>699604</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Orion-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\Device\Harddisk2\DR2</Data>
    <Binary>0300800001000000000000000F0004C0040100009D0000C000000000000000000000000000000000B0C0040000000000FFFFFFFF000000005800000A00020000EC200A1242032000000010003C0000000000300000000000681B191B80FAFFFF00000000000000006018191B80FAFFFF00000000000000008022081C0000000028001C08228000080000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

I think Device #2 is a physical device as it shows up when i run

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          223 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 2    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *
  Disk 3    Online         7452 GB      0 B   *    *

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>wmic diskdrive get caption, deviceid, size
Caption                                   DeviceID            Size
KINGSTON  SV300S37A240G SATA Disk Device  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0  240054796800
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1  8001560609280
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2  8001560609280
ST8000VN 0022-2EL112 SATA Disk Device     \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3  8001560609280

The disk is accelerated by primocache

windows > primocache (ram cache > l2 ssd > windows software Raid 5 ( segate 8tb hdd, segate 8tb hdd, segate 8tb hdd ) )

Four0Four · December 13, 2021, 8:19pm

Windows 7 is just too old to support that cmdlet then. I know in later versions of Windows the DeviceID in Get-PhysicalDisk matches up with the drive number in \Device\HarddiskX\DRX from your eventlog. I don’t have a Windows 7 VM to test with so I dont want to offer up any wmic or Get-WMIObject suggestions without knowing the drive numbers will match up with \Device\HardiskX.

But I do think your suspicions of it being a disk problem are warranted. It would be nice to know what disk to focus on but I suppose you could test all the disks. There is a open source SMART tool called GSmartControl that I’ve been using for many years to test drives. It uses the drive’s built-in SMART function to run some basic tests. None of the tests will overwrite any user data and are considered safe. I’d start with the short self-tests on all the drives before moving on to the extended test which will likely take +1 hr. Hope that helps.

https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/

HeWhoThreadsLightly · December 14, 2021, 7:39pm

One of my drives keeps aborting the test so i think i found it.

Do you know anything about what you have to do when replacing a failed drive under windows software raid?

Four0Four · December 14, 2021, 8:20pm

Read entire post before doing anything

No, I’ve never used software RAID before so I didn’t know off the top of my head. I was assuming it would be a right-click menu option somewhere in Disk Management. So I did a quick google search with hopes of leaving you a walk through URL but all the results I saw indicated Windows 7 does not include support for software RAID 5.

HeWhoThreadsLightly:

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root                                               CurrentLocation
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----                                               ---------------
Alias                                  Alias
C                 188,87         34,70 FileSystem    C:\                                               Windows\system32
cert                                   Certificate   \
D                                      FileSystem    D:\
Env                                    Environment
Function                               Function
HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
M               11022,89      11332,85 FileSystem    M:\

Then I looked at your Get-PSDrive output for your M: drive. I’m seeing 11TB free and 11.3TB used. When adding these together it puts the total capacity at 22.3TB… and with your RAID consisting of 3 x 8TB drives this means you are definitely not running RAID 5. In fact you have no redundancy at all. If one of your 3 drives fails you will lose everything stored on your M: drive.

Get an external hard drive and start backing up your data ASAP! Start with your most important documents first.

CHESSTUR · January 9, 2022, 11:40am

Sometimes in situations like this one must think outside of the box. Drastic circumstances often call for drastic measures. I don’t know if your problem is solved or not as it looks as though the original post was 26 days ago. Perhaps someone might benefit from this little bit of friendly user advice. Onboard RAID is notorious for failing. Some people think Intel’s software RAID (the kind that comes with the system board) is absolute garbage. Myself, I’ve had worse results with AMD. My advice is this: Get a nice little RAID card (a real one) that requires a battery or at least UPS backup. These things go for a song now on Ebay in brand new mint condition. Make sure you get the sort that you can use break out cables. In your case I recommend something that will give you 8 ports judging by how many TB you’re using. Something like this: LSI 9267-8i 6Gb/s PCI-E 2.0 512MB 8Port SATA/SAS SAS2208 Controller Card. Avago owns LSI now but your Mega Raid interface is very user friendly and I’ve been using mine without issue (except when one drive went and I had to replace it) for years. The card cost me 20 bux and the breakout cables cost me a bit more but it sure beat fighting and begging and pleading with my crappy AMD software to function correctly. It will save you a ton of headaches. I run all sorts of RAID from 0 to 10 so I know from whence I speak. Save yourself the trouble and get a dependable card. Plus if you go this route you’ll have much better security IMO. There it is. I hope this helps.