nVidia RAID Array Spontaneously "Degrades" on Healthy Drives

This TechByte deals with RAID arrays created with an nVidia RAID controller, such as those integrated onto many motherboards, which spontaneously creates a second array and reports both as "Degraded" even though all drives still show a "Healthy" status. In Windows, you may see an additional drive listed in Windows Explorer. The cause of this issue is unknown, but it appears to be a common problem with nVidia RAID controllers.

Typically a RAID array reports it has "Degraded" if one drive in the array had failed. In this case, the failed drive should be replaced and the array rebuilt. This TechByte does not apply to you.

Note: Performing tasks on RAID arrays can result in loss of data. We recommend you have a complete backup of your data before attempting any action on the RAID set. As always, you undertake all actions at your own risk.

The issue is that if the array degrades spontaneously on Healthy drives, the method to rebuild or restore this array is not obvious. Some motherboard documentation reports using the Rebuild Wizard option in the nVidia Control Panel's Storage feature -- however this wizard does not seem to exist in certain versions or distributions of the nTune software. Furthermore, attempts the RAID controller's BIOS options are very unintuitive and documentation seems scarce. Attempting to simply Rebuild from the BIOS drops the user back to the main menu without any message or apparent action.

Before beginning, you need to determine which drive is causing the array to be degraded:

1. From within Windows, launch the nVidia Control Panel.
2. Click Storage.
3. Select each drive in the array and look at the "Partitions" listing at the bottom. In the examples we have seen, the "broken" drive will appear with the wrong partition information (as it's being recognized as a completely separate "array").
4. Record the Channel to which this affected drive is connected.

You can then begin rebuilding the array by first removing the affected drive:

1. Reboot the PC and, when prompted, press F10 to enter the RAID controller utility.
2. Select the affected drive, as noted above, and Delete it. This is deleting the second array which has been created somehow.
3. At the main menu, select one of the other drives in the RAID set (which should still be listed as "Degraded") and choose Rebuild.
4. You will be prompted to select the drive to rebuild on. Choose the drive you just deleted.
5. The rebuild process will then begin. This can take many hours to complete, depending on the size of your drives.

It is best practice to ensure that you have the latest RAID drivers from your motherboard or RAID controller manufacturer. If you have not already done so, visit your manufacturer's website and download the latest drivers.

Some additional information may be found in these reports from around the web:

• Failed 0+1 RAID setup on nVidia RAID (unknown MB)
• Various issues with different motherboards with nVraid
• Issue from nVidia forums with nVraid on Gigabyte motherboard
• Issue from nVidia forums with nVraid on ASUS motherboard

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