User profile for user: Freymour
Freymour Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 RAID card Crisis

Yesterday I installed a brand new HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 card in a 2008 MacPro3,1 running Mac OS X 10.5.8. Connected to this card is an Enhance Technology EnhanceBOX E4 MS containing 4 1TB Western Digital RE3 (WD1002FBYS-02A6B0; Revision 03.00C06 ) also brand new.

The HighPoint 3522 Storage Health Inspector shows all 4 disks with Status OK and 0 Bad Sectors. The Array was created after initializing all 4 disks and is now RAID 5 with 3.00 TB in Write Through mode with Block Size of 16k and Sector Size of 512BHPT and its status is Normal.

The Crisis is that I have lost access to the RAID twice in the past 24 hours. The first time I was copying files to the RAID and noticed that 20 directories disappeared. I ran DiskWarrior I received the following Error Message: Disk warrior can not rebuild the disk. Error 2351,-36. Please mount the preview and check your files.

I contacted Alsoft Tech Support and received the following Reply: There is a physical problem with this RAID. Likely, one of the hard drives is starting to physically fail. Run DiskWarrior again.
At the Report, click the Preview button and utilize the Preview function to copy your files to another hard drive.

I followed his instructions and copied the data back to a single 1TB drive.

Believing that the problem was just a fluke, I went into maintenance and deleted the Array. I reinitialized all 4 disks and created a new Array. Went into Disk Utility and created 1 Partition and formatted it Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Once this was done, I copied the data back to the RAID.

To ensure that everything was OK, I opened Disk Utility and ran Verify Disk with the resulting errors: "Invalid catalog record type. Volume Check failed. Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed."

I then ran DiskWarrior again and it shows up as "Unknown Disk". The only option I had was to rebuild the directory and on Step 6: Overlapped files detected: 4. Four hours later I came back to the MacPro and the system was frozen. I rebooted and restarted DiskWarrior and is once again 50% through Rebuilding Directory in Step 6: Overlapped files detected: 4.

Console messages from Diskwarrior, which has also been reported to Alsoft are:
com.apple.launchd[226] ([0x0-0x3d03d].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[641]) Exited: Terminated
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] DiskWarriorRebuildServer: Couldn't open 'rc' file, error '2'
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] DiskWarriorRebuildServer: Error 1 executing '/sbin/kextunload',
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] kextunload: unload kext /Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskWarriorPreview.kext failed
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] DiskWarrior App: Error resolving disk with VM pages. (-43)
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] DiskWarrior App: Time Machine (disk1s2) contains a Time Machine database
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] Wired PhysicalMemory = 928.28 MB
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] Active PhysicalMemory = 917.98 MB
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] Inactive PhysicalMemory = 127.85 MB
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] PhysicalMemory Used = 1.93 GB
[0x0-0x41041].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[653] Free Physical Memory = 12.06 GB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarriorRebuildServer: Couldn't open 'rc' file, error '2'
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarriorRebuildServer: Error 1 executing '/sbin/kextunload',
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] kextunload: unload kext /Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskWarriorPreview.kext failed
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: Error resolving disk with VM pages. (-43)
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: Time Machine (disk1s2) contains a Time Machine database
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: Unknown disk: 'disk5s2', sectors: 5859426224, size: 512, type: 'hfs'
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] Wired PhysicalMemory = 926.81 MB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] Active PhysicalMemory = 890.04 MB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] Inactive PhysicalMemory = 131.33 MB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] PhysicalMemory Used = 1.9 GB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] Free Physical Memory = 12.08 GB
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: Rebuilding disk device: disk5s2
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: disk5s2 Extents, Catalog and Attributes tree sizes total 230 MB.
[0x0-0x43043].com.alsoft.diskwarrior[675] DiskWarrior App: Attributes file is severely damaged.

I have a RAID that I can't access, uncertain about which piece of hardware is the culprit as I haven't found a smoking gun.

Thus, I need to ask for help from those with more knowledge and experience as to what recommended steps should I follow to ensure this issue gets resolved and I don't loose any further data.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 14 GB Ram

Posted on Aug 23, 2009 9:59 PM

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10 replies
User profile for user: Freymour
Freymour Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Aug 24, 2009 8:10 AM in response to Freymour

Intuition suggested that I check the boot disk so I cloned it using Synchronize Pro last night. This morning I ran Diskwarrior on the cloned disk and let it fix permissions and the rebuild the directory.

I then booted of the cloned disk and ran disk utility on the previous boot disk. Verifying volume brought up Invalid B-tree node size, Volume Check failed. Error Filesystem verify or repair failed.

I then brought up Diskwarrior and asked it to fix permissions. It found a slew of issues.

I ran rebuild directory and it came back with a smoking gun: The boot blocks are damaged and will be repaired after replacing the directory. 2 files/folders had to be moved to the Rescued items folder. Incorrect values inthe Volume Information were repaired. Critical values in the Volume Information were incorrect and were repaired.

It makes me wonder if the RAID card Crisis is due to these issues? Any experts care to comment?
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User profile for user: Freymour
Freymour Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Sep 3, 2009 4:02 PM in response to Peggy Ho

Peggy,
I updated the firmware, then installed Snow Leopard and still had the same issues. One interesing find was that the 8-lane 3522 was showing up in System Profiler as 2-lane. So, I packed up my System and took it to Apple. I found out today that they will be replacing the System LogicBoard and won't get it back for another 10 days.
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User profile for user: Jim Curtis
Jim Curtis
User level: Level 1
9 points

Sep 29, 2009 10:41 PM in response to Freymour

I read your post with great interest, because a similar thing happened to me. My Enhance E8-MS RAID would just freeze, and double-clicking my drive icons would result in a blank window. I couldn't reboot without holding the Mac power button down. I eventually eliminated suspects and determined my 3522 was bad. That was just the beginning. The tech support people at Highpoint are morons. They asked for an RMA three times on three different days. They could only manage one correspondence per day. I sent in one for each request, after the third time, I sent 20 in to make sure they got it. I asked to speak to a human, and that request was ignored. Then they asked me for a copy of my invoice three times on three different days. They got 20 copies of that, too, just to keep them from asking again. They took another day to ask for my serial number. Finally, after TWO WEEKS of this lunacy, they issued me an RMA. Then, three days after they signed the Fedex receipt for my card, they shipped me a replacement. I'll be getting it the day after tomorrow.

I will have been without my HBA for three weeks.

Who can run a business dependent on a RAID with this poor level of service?

I would be ready to go ballistic if I hadn't had a friend with a spare 3522 that he loaned me. This proved that my card was bad, because when I put his card in, my problems vanished. So, Highpoint Tech Support was absolutely worthless at helping me diagnose my problem. I gave them all the info they needed on my first message to them. But, they had to jack me around for two weeks before they'd take any action.

I wish I could stop doing business with them for life, but curiously enough, they seem to make the most fully featured and easy to use HBA for the Mac, based on my cursory research into LSI, Adaptec, ATTO, and Areca.

But, based on our experience, yours and mine, it appears their quality control leaves a lot to be desired.

If my card goes bad again, I guess I'll just buy another one and have it shipped overnight, rather than wait another three weeks. Then, I'll have a spare. I don't trust their products, or their employees.

Clearly, I'm upset about this and venting. And, I don't have any advice for any would-be customers of HighPoint, other than "heads up." Until somebody else does a better job of supporting Mac, HPT may be a necessary evil.
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User profile for user: Jim Curtis
Jim Curtis
User level: Level 1
9 points

Oct 5, 2009 5:52 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks for the links, but my box connects by Mini-SAS.

In retrospect, I do see the benefits of buying a bundled system from one source, as opposed to putting together your own RAID from three or four different vendors. That way, when it breaks, you minimize the suspicion and finger pointing.

I've got my new RR3522 installed now, and I'm back in business. For now.
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HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 RAID card Crisis

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