ATA READ command timeout (and worse)

[Andrew Chan]

While we are on this topic...

I have been running 2 Seagate ATA66 disks (one on each channel) on a =
HighPoint HPT370 ATA100 controller (FreeBSD 4.7 and then 4.8) for more =
than a year and never had any problems.

I recently built a new server with 2 Maxtor ATA133 80GB disks on a =
Promise Fasttrak 100/TX2 and have been having random timeout problems =
since. Sometime the system would be okay for a few days with no =
problems, even after doing a few "make world" runs. Sometime timeout =
problems showed up only minutes after a fresh install (I had been =
re-installing to try to debug the problem). When timeout occured, the =
ata driver took out the disk from the mirror array, and then either I am =
stupid or something is wierd with the Promise firmware, there just =
doesn't seem to be a good way to re-sync'ing array without major file =
system corruption and the system was toasted.

Assumming the disks, cables and power supply are all okay, is timeout =
problems on Promise RAID cards still an existing and known issue =
experienced by others?

Andrew
achan _A_T_ achan.com