Disk Test with RAID Support

[brentmd]

BurnInTest Version 6.0 Professional:

When we setup RAID for raw hard drives. Does it test every disk in the RAID? For example: If there is a RAID 1 with two hard drives. The BurnInTest will only see Disk00. When I run the test it is actually testing both hard drives...right? Not just the single hard drive?

[David (PassMark)]

Would depends if you are suing software or hardware RAID.

In the case of hardware RAID all the disks connected to the RAID controller in a particular RAID set should appear as 1 single physical disk from the point of view of BurnInTest.

[brentmd]

So essentially if I was running RAID 0 with 5 hard drives. If it detects errors on disk #3...then BurnInTest will say that the entire array has errors...right?

[David (PassMark)]

There are different type of RAID setups. But this is correct most of the time.
So depending on what you are doing it might make sense to test all 5 drives before putting them into the RAID set. Testing can be done simultaneously on multiple drives, so testing might even be slightly quicker than if they were in a RAID set.

[brentmd]

PassMark,

I just want to confirm that if there is a RAID 5 setup with lets say 5 drives, that it isn't just testing bay 0 and ignoring the rest.

It does see it as one partition in BurnInTest (Disk00). All the LED lights are showing activity.

I would like to know that if bay 0, bay 1, bay 2, bay 3 are good, but bay 4 is a bad hard drive....will BurnInTest indicate errors on Disk00? I don't expect it to locate which bay is bad, but it should show errors on the volume..right?

Do you think you can test this feature to confirm? We only use RAID so it is important.

[brentmd]

Note: We are using WinPE 3.0 with BurnInTest (No OS Testing).

[David (PassMark)]

Isn't this the same question as your initial question?
The answer is the same in any case. Hardware RAID makes a group of disks appear as a single disk, and BurnInTest treats is as a single disk. It has no knowledge of the individual drives.

Note that WinPE is still Windows. It isn't correct to say that booting with WinPE is testing without an O/S. All you are doing it booting Windows from a slow CD instead of a fast hard drive.