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My Adaptec 2100S ROM Utility says, if I DELETE a RAID 1 array, I will lose all data. Is this true?

I just created a RAID 1 array from 1 good drive. When I reboot, Win2K gives an error during the boot process. I'd like to delete the array and just boot from the old disk but when I select DELETE from the RAID menu, it says ALL DATA WILL BE LOST. I thought you could "break" a RAID 1 array since there's no striping and just have 2 unrelated functioning drives.

Anyone up at this hour?

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rindi

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philipwells

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Yes, it's true. According to Adaptec after-hours support (I sprung for the $200 fee) some versions of the 2100s (and maybe other models) WILL cause ALL DATA to be lost, not just the array info. JHere's how to handle this and some other notes I collected in the process:

•      The work around is to “zap” the array.
o      Select one of the drives in the array in the ROM Utility, from under the BUS heading (not one of the drive instances from under the ARRAY heading)
o      Press Alt-F10
o      Press Z
o      Now, in the ACTION menu, there will be a ZAP option. Pick it
o      Answer YES to “are you sure…”
o      Answer NO to “Clear Partition Tables?”
o      The RAID info is now removed from the drive (and, I guess, the flash memory on the controller.
•      With the 2100s, the first time you boot from a single member of an array (because you’ve disabled one member or because it’s bad) it can take like 15 mins to boot Windows. Don't despair! Let it happen. Subsequent boots in this configuration will go faster.
•      You cannot cancel that alarm while booting. Only from the BIOS Utility (in which case you cant boot any further because you’ll do a RESTART when U exit) or from the Storage Mgr app.