nVidia RAID 1 degraded

nvidia.com/object/feature_raid
Technical Brief: MediaShield Storage Technology
IONITX
http://www.nvidia.es/object/nforce_vista_win7_64bit_ion_15.51_es.html
Windows Vista/Win7 64-bit Versiones del controlador:

• Controlador de Ethernet (v73.14+) "WHQL"
• Herramientas de administración de red (v73.16) "Sedona"
• Controlador de WinXP IDE SataIDE (v10.3.0.33) "WHQL"
• Controlador de WinXP IDE SataRAID (v10.3.0.33) "WHQL"
• Aplicación WinXP RAIDTOOL (v10.3.0.30)
• SMU Driver (v1.71) "WHQL"
• SMBus Driver (v4.74) "WHQL"
• Programa de instalación (v7.57)
• Controlador de Audio (v1.00.00.59)

es.download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/15.51/15.51_nforce_ion_winvista_win7_64bit_whql.exe
BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST!
Source

The error you are describing means that your RAID array is broken. You probably have a failed hard drive or hard drive cable or hard drive controller. None of these things may have happened but the RAID array may have broken by itself. What you need to do is to rebuild the array. If it successfully rebuilds and you can run a scandisk without errors then you know that your hardware is fine. If not then you will have to replace the faulty component. ie hard drive, hard drive cable or hard drive controller. The hard drive controller in this case is built into the motherboard so if it is faulty you either replace the motherboard, get yourself another RAID adapter or dispense with RAID completely.
I suggest you follow my directions above on rebuilding your array through Windows as it automatically tells you which drive has failed. ie The one on the bottom of the Window.
The other way to rebuild the array is by entering the RAID boot utility, deleting the faulty array, adding it to the functioning array and then rebuilding the array. If you choose this option you have to be careful as you will not be stopped from deleting the good array. 

Before going ahead with either option you must ensure that you have backed up your data to external media such as DVD or CD. This way you protect yourself from everything going wrong. Be sure to test your backup.

------------------------------

nforcershq.com/forum/raid-1-failure-nvraid

There are two ways to rebuild the nVidia raid; 

1) Using the nVidia raid utility before Windows boots by pressing F10 

2) Using the nVidia NVraid utility in Windows. 

I was using the nVidia raid utility before Windows boots up until recently as I was confident in its results. The NVraid utility didn't seem to work. Now I use the NVraid utility within Windows because I discovered how to make it work and it is easier! 

I have two metal removable drive bays in each server with a SATA 72GB Western Digital Raptor in each. SATA permits these drives to be hot pluggable while the Raptor drives are the fastest SATA drives around. 

Lets label them bay 0 and 1. Before I do an update I remove one of the drives. This has the same effect on the pc as though one of the drives have failed. I apply the update. If the update is successful I then remirror the removed drive by using the following steps. If not then I reboot to the drive that I removed. 

1) Slide the drive back into its bay. 

2) Open nVidia NVraid raid manager utility. 

3) The utility will show two hard drives, one above the other and with a heading 'Mirroring' above each. Left-click on the 'Mirroring' heading above the lower drive.

4) In the left pane under the 'System tasks' heading left-click on 'Delete Array'. 

5) In the wizard that opens click next and then finish. You have now deleted the array from the backup drive as it was at the time you removed it. 

6) You will now have to wait a minute or two while the utility frees up the lower drive. When it is done the heading above the lower disk will read 'Free disk' 

7) Now left-click on the 'Mirroring' heading above the upper disk. 

8) Click on the 'Rebuild array' option in the system tasks pane to the left. 

9) In the wizard that appears click next. 

10) Click on the drive shown so that the next button becomes available and then click on that next button. 

11) Click finish and now your mirrored array will begin rebuilding. To check on its progress simply click on the 'Mirroring' heading and you will be shown how much of the rebuilding has been completed. 

Source

I've got an ASUS A8N-VM-CMS Micro ATX motherboard with RAID 1 activated on 2 Maxtor SATA2 160Go hard disks drives. 

After a brutal shutdown, my array goes degraded. 

- Going into the Nvidia RAID bios utility by pressing F10 doesn't allow me to rebuild the array typing the R key do nothing (like you)

- Going under Windows and launching the Nvidia MediaShield utility doesn't allow me to rebuild the array ()

Then

- Switch off the computer

- Open the computer

- Unplug the sata/ide cable from 1 of your 2 drives

- Reboot the computer

- Shutdown the computer and switch off

- Re-plug your sata/ide drive

- Press F10 on boot to go into the RAID bios utility and select R to rebuild, press F7 to confirm.

- Windows is now starting, and if you launch the Nvidia mediashield utility you will see that the rebuilding process is in progress.

PS : During this, i had to redefine the boot disk, bios config was lost, but don't know why.

--------------
RAID degraded
http://www.zotacusa.com/forum/topic/3790-zotac-nvidia-raid-1-degraded/