Typical read/write speeds for Apple Raid card

I have 3 1TB Samsung F3 Spinpoint drives that I am using in Bays 2-4, coupled with Apple's Raid card. Before striping the drives in a raid configuration, I used Disk Utility to write zeroes to each of the disks individually, which took about 3 hours each (this works out to about 100 MB/s, which makes sense to me). However, the third drive, in Bay 2, took much longer than normal to zero (over 12 hours), so I suspected a defective drive. When I striped them using the Raid Utility program, I was able to create a volume and proceeded to test it using QuickBench. Extended Read tests in the 20-100 MB range were only about 30 MB/s. Is this normal? Shortly thereafter, my Raid Utility program encountered an error with the hard drive in Bay 4, which wasn't the same disk I had problems formatting. I took out that drive, removed the volume and raid, and set up Raid Stripe 0 with 2 disks. I am still encountering Extended Reads of about 30 MB/s, no matter if I have cache enabled or not. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I suppose I could select a block size other than 32 kB when I set up the raid, but I wanted to save time to see if any posters have other suggestions.
I know that the windows version of the drive makers utilities are recommended for surface scanning and mapping.
In the case of weak sectors, this is about all you can do.
I may be wrong, but I think Apple has a clause in their manual so that people will buy hard drives from them instead of 3rd party manufacturers.
I am sure that is part of it.
There is also the onboard ROM of the hard drive.
Problem with Apple supplied cards of any kind, is that they have a history of ROM manipulation.
Whether it be crippling (as compared to 3rd party equivalent), or keys to limit performance or compatibility, it is always a question.
I know I am not the only one who has bought their own hard drives for a Mac Pro RAID setup.
I'm sure you are not, and was just "crossing t's and dotting i's" in asking....
BTW, I have 132 MB/s Read, 121 MB/s Write for 2MB-10MB blocks, avg 128 MB/s and 110 MB/s for 10MB-100MB blocks on a 2 drive RAID with WD drives in a 100MHz FSB system.

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                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily(3.0.0)[B6D80E76-647D-3BAE-823A-85871E9BAC7 2]@0xffffff7f97ca9000
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    Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64
    Kernel UUID: 1D9369E3-D0A5-31B6-8D16-BFFBBB390393
    Kernel slide:     0x0000000017400000
    Kernel text base: 0xffffff8017600000
    System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
    System uptime in nanoseconds: 91308918786320
    last loaded kext at 89490169308794: com.apple.filesystems.smbfs          2.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7f99714000, size 335872)
    last unloaded kext at 1120636252260: com.apple.driver.StorageLynx          3.3.5 (addr 0xffffff7f99714000, size 8192)
    loaded kexts:
    com.apple.filesystems.smbfs          2.0.0
    com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC          1.60
    com.apple.filesystems.autofs          3.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch          80.14
    com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager          4.2.0f6
    com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient          3.5.13
    com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl          1.1.12
    com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer          1.1.4
    com.apple.iokit.CSRBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport          4.2.0f6
    com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000          1.1.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBDisplays          360.8.14
    com.apple.driver.AppleHDA          2.5.3fc1
    com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver          1.1.9
    com.apple.kext.AMD5000Controller          1.1.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleLPC          1.7.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet          1.0.0d1
    com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X          7.0.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleHWAccess          1
    com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin          1.0.0
    com.apple.driver.XsanFilter          404
    com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi          3.3.5
    com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient          3.6.0
    com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
    com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1
    com.apple.BootCache          35
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet          3.1.3b1
    com.apple.driver.AppleRAIDCard          401
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub          650.4.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort          2.9.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA          2.5.1
    com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI          4.9.9
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI          650.4.1
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI          650.4.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons          2.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleRTC          2.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleHPET          1.8
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS          2.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC          2.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC          1.7
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient          216.0.0
    com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall          153
    com.apple.security.quarantine          3
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement          216.0.0
    com.apple.kext.triggers          1.0
    com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver          4.2.0f6
    com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver          245.13
    com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily          10.0.7
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController          1.0.11d1
    com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport          4.2.0f6
    com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily          98.7.1
    com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib          2.5.3fc1
    com.apple.vecLib.kext          1.0.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily          1.9.4fc11
    com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib          1.14
    com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport          2.3.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP          2.2.5
    com.apple.kext.AMDSupport          1.1.4
    com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl          3.4.12
    com.apple.iokit.IOSurface          91
    com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily          4.2.0f6
    com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController          2.5.3fc1
    com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily          2.3.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily          2.5.3fc1
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMC          3.1.6d1
    com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy          1.0.0
    com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily          5.5.1d27
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse          180.9
    com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse          180.9
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard          170.15
    com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard          170.15
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver          650.4.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub          650.4.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite          650.4.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport          2.5.1
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSBP2          4.2.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice          3.6.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily          1.7
    com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily          1.7.1
    com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily          1.7.1
    com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport          3.5.0
    com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily          3.2
    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily          3.0.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice          3.6.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily          3.6.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient          650.4.4
    com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily          2.6.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily          2.5.2
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily          4.5.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily          650.4.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM          2.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily          2.0.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime          2.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily          1.1
    com.apple.security.sandbox          278.10
    com.apple.kext.AppleMatch          1.0.0d1
    com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet          7
    com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore          2
    com.apple.driver.DiskImages          371.1
    com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily          1.9
    com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily          21
    com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore          28.30
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform          2.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily          2.8
    com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily          1.4
    com.apple.kec.corecrypto          1.0
    com.apple.kec.pthread          1
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    Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870, ATI Radeon HD 5870, PCIe, 1024 MB
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363445363830304600
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363445363830304600
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
    Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
    Bluetooth: Version 4.2.0f6 12982, 3 services, 22 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
    Network Service: Ethernet 1, Ethernet, en0
    PCI Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870, Display Controller, Slot-1
    PCI Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870, ATY,LangurParent, Slot-1
    PCI Card: Apple RAID Card, RAID Controller, Slot-4
    Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-112D
    USB Device: Hub
    USB Device: Keyboard Hub
    USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse
    USB Device: Apple Keyboard
    USB Device: XD-0405-U
    USB Device: Apple Cinema HD Display
    USB Device: USB2.0 Printer (Hi-speed)
    USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    FireWire Device: built-in_hub, Up to 800 Mb/sec
    FireWire Device: unknown_device, Iomage HDD, Up to 800 Mb/sec
    FireWire Device: unknown_device, Unknown
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    I use my MP 4,1 as a photo edit workstation but I also keep it on 24/7 for home server, web server, nas, backup etc. So i like to use items that are made for round the clock usage.
    Or i just get inexpensive SATA drives and SoftRAID them. So RAID 0+1 is no problem in software RAID?
    Thank you guy for quick informed response

  • 2010 Mac Pro with Apple RAID card - "Drive carrier 00:03 removed"

    I've got a 2010 Mac Pro with the Apple RAID card and 4 internal identical Seagate ST32000641AS 2TB drives inside.
    I've never had a problem with the RAID card (either battery or in operation) except for one thing:
    Almost every time I shut the machine down (which I try to do as rarely as possible), it keeps losing Drive 3, the spare.
    (See RAID Utility event log snippet below.)
    [I wish I could understand why this Apple RAID card keeps losing the spare across power-cycles/reboots, but I digress.]
    So I just adopted it as the spare and it spawns the rebuild and many hours later, everything's fine again.
    ... until the last time I rebooted (Jan. 2nd).
    After the usual "I lost the spare" message upon login, it began the rebuild.
    But this time, about 11 1/2 hours later the rebuild stopped and RAID Utility reported "Drive carrier 00:03 removed".
    Bay 3 is now missing in the Controller view.
    I powered off the system last night, and left it off overnight.  Today I took all the drives out, blew the dust off and reseated them.
    Same thing.  Drive 3 is still missing, and now the rebuild task aborted.
    The drive bay location shouldn't matter, right?  Can I swap the Bay 3 drive with the Bay 4 drive?
    I figure one of two things would happen:
    (1) It will report Bay 3 as being there but Bay 4 as being missing, same situation as is now.  Meaning the problem is in the Bay 3 spare drive.
    (2) It will report Bay 3 as being missing (despite a 'good' drive being present) and Bay 4 will be the (unattached) spare, and the RAID set will be unviable.  Meaning the problem is with the drive bay itself, not whatever drive is plugged into it.
    If "Drive carrier removed" is trying to tell me the disk is bad, why do I not see any log messages about it?  I suppose a spare that never gets used could go bad from lack of use, but ... no messages at all?
    Hesitant to plunk down $160 on a new spare disk if the present one isn't actually dead ...
    % sudo raidutil list raidsetinfo
                                         Total     Avail
    Raidsets      Type       Drives       Size      Size  Comments
    RS1           RAID 5     1,2,4      5.23TB    0.00MB  Rebuild: 0% complete            
    % sudo raidutil list driveinfo
    Drives  Raidset       Size      Flags
    Bay #1  RS1             2.00TB   IsMemberOfRAIDSet:RS1 IsReliable
    Bay #2  RS1             2.00TB   IsMemberOfRAIDSet:RS1 IsReliable
    Bay #4  RS1             2.00TB   IsMemberOfRAIDSet:RS1 IsReliable
    Event log snippet:
    Saturday, January 11, 2014 8:15:19 AM PT
    Background task aborted: Task=Rebuild,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1
    informational
    Friday, January 3, 2014 3:50:28 AM PT
    Drive carrier 00:03 removed
    informational
    Thursday, January 2, 2014 4:29:37 PM PT
    Marked drive in bay 3 as a global spare
    informational
    Thursday, January 2, 2014 4:29:28 PM PT
    Adopted drive in bay 3
    informational
    Thursday, January 2, 2014 4:28:34 PM PT
    Degraded RAID set RS1 - No spare available for rebuild
    critical
    Saturday, December 7, 2013 5:35:17 PM PT
    Marked drive in bay 3 as a global spare
    informational
    Saturday, December 7, 2013 5:35:08 PM PT
    Adopted drive in bay 3
    informational
    Saturday, December 7, 2013 5:34:11 PM PT
    The "RedundancyScrub" command could not be executed. (Invalid request or invalid parameter in the request.)
    warning
    Saturday, December 7, 2013 5:34:03 PM PT
    Degraded RAID set RS1 - No spare available for rebuild
    critical
    Friday, December 6, 2013 4:56:47 AM PT
    Battery finished conditioning
    informational
    Thursday, December 5, 2013 9:53:44 PM PT
    Battery started scheduled conditioning cycle (write cache disabled)
    informational
    Friday, September 6, 2013 10:53:11 PM PT
    Battery finished conditioning
    informational
    Friday, September 6, 2013 3:41:33 PM PT
    Battery started scheduled conditioning cycle (write cache disabled)
    informational
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 3:41:35 PM PT
    Battery finished conditioning
    informational
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 8:37:49 AM PT
    Battery started scheduled conditioning cycle (write cache disabled)
    informational
    Thursday, May 30, 2013 4:09:51 PM PT
    Marked drive in bay 3 as a global spare
    informational
    Thursday, May 30, 2013 4:09:42 PM PT
    Adopted drive in bay 3
    informational
    Thursday, May 30, 2013 4:08:59 PM PT
    Degraded RAID set RS1 - No spare available for rebuild
    critical
    Thursday, May 30, 2013 3:32:29 PM PT
    Degraded RAID set RS1
    warning

    Power Pig wrote:
    "Hesitant to plunk down $160 on a new spare disk if the present one isn't actually dead ...
    % sudo raidutil list raidsetinfo
                                         Total     Avail
    Raidsets      Type       Drives       Size      Size  Comments
    RS1           RAID 5     1,2,4      5.23TB    0.00MB  Rebuild: 0% complete     
    I was talking about this.
    This looks like a RAID 5 setup without the parity to me. I would said it basically a RAID 0.
    Also you metioned "I guess that previous spare must really have gone 'bad', despite having never been used! "
    I wiped everything out, I selected the 3 disks and clicked on "Create RAID Set" with RAID5 selected and the "Use unassigned drives as spares" option checked.  The 3rd disk has always been marked as the spare ever since then.  You do not have a choice to create a "RAID5 setup without the parity".  If I wanted a RAID0 I would have chosen a RAID0!  raidutil now says
    % sudo raidutil list raidsetinfo
                                         Total     Avail
    Raidsets      Type       Drives       Size      Size  Comments
    RS1           RAID 5     1,2,3,4    5.23TB    0.00MB  No tasks running
    Every time the system would 'lose' Drive 3 on boot, I would just keep rebooting until it was 'found', and then manually re-assign the now-'floating' drive as the spare - and the RAID would rebuild.
    There was never a problem until the day that prompted this post - when it would not find Drive 3 no matter what I did.  I turned the Mac Pro off for several hours until the drives had all cooled down and it still did not find the drive.  I left the machine on but unmounted the degraded volume until I got the new replacement drive.
    I really don't understand what you are getting at. It's like you are trying to tell me I set it up as a 4-drive RAID5 with no parity(!) and that I was in grave danger because one of the disks was gone.  The actual RAID contents (spread across Drives 1, 2 and 4) were never in danger, unless a 2nd disk had failed while the spare was not seen by the Apple RAID card.  I wasn't too worried about that happening.

  • Apple Raid Card: Raid-1 volume degrading

    Hello,
    I have 2 Raid-1 volumes running on a late 2009 mac pro with an Apple raid card. The second Raid volume has degraded now 3 times in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Raid utility is saying that the drive is damaged but when I shutdown, pull the drive out of the bay and push it back in and then restart it says that the drive is good. After assigning it as a spare the Volume rebuilds and lasts about a week until the same thing starts all over again. Perhaps the drive is somehow damaged but it seems more like a connection problem. If this is a familar issue to anyone and someone has a suggestion it would be greatly appreciated.

    Maybe you need to do a full surface scan for bad or weak failing sectors.
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    Sometimes the Initialization will fail. If the drive is still under warranty, return it to the manufacturer for a refund/replacement. Original Apple drives have a one-year warranty, same as your Mac. Manufacturer warranties are often (but not always) 3 years or more.

  • Apple RAID Card - Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 18)

    Hello,
    Upon start up of the computer I get a message that says "The Apple RAID Card installed in your system requires your attention".
    When I open up the RAID Utility I have messages like -
    Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 18)
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    Thanks in advance for any assistance.
    Kris

    Hello
    I have the same problem too:
    Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 18)
    or in my case, I am german: Die Batterie funktioniert nicht (Code 0x#0 = 18)
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    I repeaded this several times, always with the same result.
    I was quite sure that all the trouble resulted from a firmware bug.
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