Hi all, I'm having a problem with my RAID5 array, here's the deal: System is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ on a Gigabyte K8NS-939-Ultra (nForce3 Ultra). Linux 2.6.17.7, x86_64. Debian GNU/Linux Sid, GCC 4.1.1 (kernel configured and compiled by hand). RAID5 array created using mdadm 2.5.2. All drives are 250Gb Seagate SATAs, spread across three controllers: nForce3 Ultra (motherboard), Silicon Image 3124 (motherboard) and Promise SATA TX300 (PCI). /dev/sda: ST3250624NS /dev/sdb: ST3250624NS /dev/sdc: ST3250823AS /dev/sdd: ST3250624NS /dev/sde: ST3250823AS The array assembles and runs perfectly at boot, and continues to operate without errors, and has been for a few months. It is using a version 0.90 superblock. None of the devices were partitioned with fdisk, they were just passed to mdadm when the array was created. Recently (last week or two), I have noticed the following in dmesg: SCSI device sde: 488397168 512-byte hdwr sectors (250059 MB) sde: Write Protect is off sde: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sde: drive cache: write back SCSI device sde: 488397168 512-byte hdwr sectors (250059 MB) sde: Write Protect is off sde: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sde: drive cache: write back sde: sde1 sde3 sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sde Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1792 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1793 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1794 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1795 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1796 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1797 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1798 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1799 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1792 Buffer I/O error on device sde3, logical block 1793 /dev/sda appears to have a partition table as well, but no partitions defined. /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc are "unknown partition tables". Bearing in mind I did not create a partition table on /dev/sde, yet the kernel reports one and also individual partitions, here's the output from fdisk: # fdisk /dev/sde Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sde: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sde1 1 1 995+ c7 Syrinx Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sde2 1 1 0 0 Empty Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sde3 133675 133675 995+ c7 Syrinx Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sde4 1 1 0 0 Empty Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary. I'm not a software/kernel/RAID developer by any stretch of the imagination, but my thoughts are that I've just been unlucky with my array and that the data on there has somehow managed to look like a partition table, and the kernel is trying to read it, resulting in the buffer IO errors. I believe a solution to this problem would be for me to create proper partitions on my RAID disks (with type fd I suspect?), and possibly use a version 1.x superblock rather than 0.90. I would much appreciate some help with this as I want to preserve the data on the array (naturally). Is it possible to fdisk one drive in the array at a time, create a proper partition table and a type 'fd' partition spanning the entire disk, then re-add it to the array? If any more information about my system is required, let me know. Thanks in advance, Lem P.S. Output from mdadm --examine /dev/sde /dev/sde: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 54485c92:a2b165f8:5f97d5ed:bbc54eaf Creation Time : Sat Jul 1 11:06:03 2006 Raid Level : raid5 Device Size : 244198400 (232.89 GiB 250.06 GB) Array Size : 976793600 (931.54 GiB 1000.24 GB) Raid Devices : 5 Total Devices : 5 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Sat Aug 19 19:56:48 2006 State : active Active Devices : 5 Working Devices : 5 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 56205d7d - correct Events : 0.504412 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 128K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 4 8 64 4 active sync /dev/sde 0 0 8 0 0 active sync /dev/sda 1 1 8 16 1 active sync /dev/sdb 2 2 8 32 2 active sync /dev/sdc 3 3 8 48 3 active sync /dev/sdd 4 4 8 64 4 active sync /dev/sde - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html