5.3 Given a scenario, troubleshoot & diagnose problems with storage drives & RAID arrays

Question 1

What to do if the system tries to boot from an incorrect device?

Answer 1

Check removable drives for interference & verify boot order

Question 2

How to tell if a fixed disk is powering up?

Answer 2

Check LED on front panel or hear the hard disk spinning up

Question 3

What to do if a fixed disk is not detected at boot?

Answer 3

Check if drive has a power connector attached & if it powers up

Question 4

What to do if a hard drive is powering up but not detected?

Answer 4

Verify data cable connections, check for damage, & enable MOBO ports

Question 5

What to suspect if power & cabling are fine but the computer doesn’t boot?

Answer 5

An issue with the storage drive’s boot sector & files

It is likely corrupted. The boot sector is a specific area on the storage device that contains essential information for the system to boot up.

Question 6

What can cause boot sector corruption?

The boot sector is a specific area on the storage device that contains essential information for the system to boot up.

Answer 6

• Disk faults
• Power failure
• Incorrect OS installation
• Malware

Question 7

Meaning of MBR?

Answer 7

Master Boot Record

Question 8

Meaning of GPT?

Answer 8

GUID [Global Unique IDentifier] Partition Table

Question 9

What are the 2 ways to format boot information?

Answer 9

• MBR
• GPT

Question 10

Where is the MBR located & what does it contain?

Answer 10

In the first sector, with partition info & code to find the active boot sector

Question 11

What does the GPT boot scheme do?

Answer 11

Identifies partitions & OS boot loaders across sectors

Question 12

What errors may you see if boot records are damaged?

Answer 12

• “Boot device not found”
• “OS not found”
• “Invalid drive specification”

Question 13

How to fix a boot problem caused by malware?

Answer 13

Use antivirus boot disk to scan & repair boot sector

If you don’t have the option of using a recovery disk created bythe anti-virs software, you can try to use the repair options that come with the OS setup disk

Question 14

What happens when the firmware finds a boot device?

Answer 14

Boot sector code loads into memory, takes over from firmware, & loads OS flies

Question 15

What are errors after the boot sector code is loaded usually due to?

Answer 15

Software or device driver issues

Question 16

What time range are hard disks most likely to fail?

Answer 16

in the first few months of operation or after several years

Question 17

Which type of hard drive is more reliable, HDDs or SSDs?

Answer 17

SSDs

But they also have a max exptected lifespan

Question 18

What can cause damage or file corruption in fixed disks?

Answer 18

Sudden loss of power

Especially during a write operation

Question 19

What may constant LED activity on a disk suggest?

Answer 19

Insufficient RAM, faulty software, or malware

Question 20

What could cause a “Bootable device not found” error?

Answer 20

Faulty disk or file corruption

Question 21

What does read/write failures on a disk indicate?

Answer 21

Bad sectors (HDD) or bad blocks (SSD)

A sector is the smallest unit of data that can be read from or written to the disk. A block is a larger unit of data compared to a sector in an HDD. When data is written to an SSD, it is written in blocks

Question 22

Meaning of S.M.A.R.T?

Answer 22

Self-Monitoring, Analysis, & Reporting Technology

Question 23

Meaning of IOPS?

Answer 23

Input/Output operations Per Second

Question 24

What is S.M.A.R.T?

Answer 24

Self-diagnostic program for hard drives

Question 25

What to do if you suspect a hard drive is failing?

Answer 25

• Use disk vendor or system diagnostic tests
• If true, backup data & replace the drive

Question 26

What can slow read/write times on a hard drive indicate?

Answer 26

The drive might be failing, or system performance issues

System performance issued like app load, file fragmentation, or limited capacity

Question 27

What happens to bad sectors (HDDs) or blocks (SSDs) detected by disk firmware?

A sector is the smallest unit of data that can be read from or written to the disk. A block is a larger unit of data compared to a sector in an HDD. When data is written to an SSD, it is written in blocks

Answer 27

They are marked as unavailable for use

Question 28

How to recover data from a failing HDD?

Answer 28

Recovery utility

Question 29

What’s required to recover data from a failing SSD?

Answer 29

Highly specialized tools

DeepSpar Disk Imager. This tool is designed specifically for data recovery professionals and is capable of handling complex SSD issues such as bad sectors, firmware corruption, and other challenges that may arise when recovering data from a failing SSD.

Question 30

Purpose of RAID?

Answer 30

Protect data from disk failures by mirroring or using parity

Question 31

How does RAID 0 differ from other RAID levels?

Answer 31

Has no redundancy

If a disk fails, the volume stops working

Question 32

What to do if a disk in a RAID array fails?

Answer 32

Replace disk & rebuild array with RAID utility

Be cautions as removing a healthy disk by mistake could cause the array to fail

Question 33

What if more disks fila than the RAID config. can tolerate?

Answer 33

Use the latest backup or file recovery solutions

Question 34

Waht to do if the RAID controller fails?

A RAID controller is a hardware device or a specialized chip that manages the operation of a RAID array

Answer 34

Replace controller or move disks to another system

Verify the status using the RAID configuration utility

Question 35

What does unusual noise from an HDD indicate?

Answer 35

Mechanical problems