Given a scenario, troubleshooting hard drives and RAID arrays( Comptia Objective 5.3)

Question 1

What can you to do to help prevent and troubleshoot read/write errors of a storage drive?

Answer 1

• Use tools such as Disk cleanup program in Windows
• Also defrag a drive once per month to prevent wear and tear on the drive. This can be done by typing” defrag” into cmd.

Question 2

What should you do if you’re using a RAID adaptor card or external enclosure?

Answer 2

• Make sure if the motherboard has built in RAID functionality of it’s own to disable it in the BIOS as it can cause a conflict.
• Verify driver for RAID device is installed and updated.

Question 3

If a hardware RAID array fails what can you first do?

Answer 3

• Check whether the hard drives are securely connected to the controller
• Check that the controller( if an adaptor card) is securely connected to the motherboard.

Question 4

How do you configure an Intel-based RAID setup?

Answer 4

• A technician needs to press Cntrl+I when the system first boots up, sometimes even before the BIOS on some systems.

Question 5

How would you configure a RAID array that is built into the motherboard?

Answer 5

• First you would have to enable RAID in the BIOS.

- Usually done by accessing the SATA configuration screen and changing from AHCI to RAID.

Question 6

If you receive a message that says “ Cannot read from the source disk” what does this mean?

Answer 6

• Can mean a Read/write issue
• May also have slow performance of a drive, see LED activity, hear clicking noises or a loud clicking noises.
• All of which can indicate a significant issue and a potential hard drive/SSD failure is imminent.
• Perform a backup

Question 7

When troubleshooting disk failures and see symptoms are present what should you immediately do?

Answer 7

• You should Get a Backup First thing( a bad drive is bad)
• You can also make sure there are no loose or damaged cables.
• Check for overheating
• Check Power supply, especially if new devices have been installed.

Question 8

When troubleshooting Boot failures what can you do?

Answer 8

• Check all cables this is a common physical problem.
• Also check the boot sequence in the BIOS to make sure you are booting from the correct device
• Check for removable disks ( especially USB) to make sure the system isn’t trying to boot from it
• Also make sure no drives have been disabled in the BIOS.
• For new installs check the hardware configuration in the BIOS. Check data and power cables and ensure installed correctly. You can also try different SATA interfaces.
• Lastly if all else fails try booting from the drive in a different PC to see if it will load on another system.

Question 9

How would you go about RAID recovery for RAID 0

Answer 9

• You will need to replace both drives to reconfigure RAID 0 and you will not be able to restore the data( Backups are crucial). You will need to restore the data from backup assuming a backup was performed before failure.

Question 10

How would you go about RAID recovery for RAID 1 , RAID 5 and RAID 10?

Answer 10

• All these RAID types use mirroring or striping with parity or both.
• You should still have access to your data due to another copy of the data from the failed drive being on either a mirrored drive or can be reconstructed from the parity data.
• Replace failed drive at your earliest convenience.

Question 11

What can also sometimes be a symptom of a failing storage device?

Answer 11

• ” Blue screen of death” / Windows Stop error.
• On MAC OS can be indicated with the Apple spinning wait cursor or “ Spinning ball of death”
• Performing a backup would be a wise next course of action.

Question 12

Many times a storage device will tell you when errors start to occur using what utility?

Answer 12

• S.M.A.R.T.
• Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
• Uses third-party utilities
• Helps avoid hardware failure by looking for warning signs.
• Has built in disk checks so you can see an issue before something major happens and lost data occurs.