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Replacing hard drive on CyTOF2 workstation

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markyyy

Participant

Posts: 15

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:09 pm

Post Tue Jul 30, 2019 3:10 pm

Replacing hard drive on CyTOF2 workstation

Hi all,

We are having some issue with one of the drives on the RAID system set up on our CyTOF2 (v6.0.626 if that matters). Unfortunately the only solution offered by Fluidigm is to replace the entire workstation for $10k off service contract; something we are not willing to do since the rest of the system is fine and only needs a new hard drive.

RAID setups don't like it when one of the drives is acting up so I was thinking of switching to a non-RAID configuration and cloning the current setup over to a larger SSD. I assume write speeds should be more than enough but wonder if anyone else has done the same and if there were any issue with doing so that I should be aware of before attempting the replacement. Is there a reason they went with a RAID config in the first place? A normal hardrive with a simple powershell script written to backup regularly works better in my opinion. I was also thinking of upgrading the RAM to 16GB (obviously checking for compatibility before doing so) on that system while at it. Interested to hear if anyone has done anything similar. Thanks!

Cheers,
Mark
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Chowduck

Contributor

Posts: 29

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:39 pm

Post Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:56 pm

Re: Replacing hard drive on CyTOF2 workstation

Hi Mark,

While I appreciate the appeal of switching to a single drive I like RAIDs, especially for keeping windows bootable in the event of drive failure. Our current instruments came configured with 2 SSDs in a RAID1 for the OS drive and 4 HDs in a RAID10 for the data drive. How is your CyTOF2 PC configured?

If you’re going the DIY route, there’s a couple options I could think of (after you backup/clone everything! Proceed at your own risk):

1) Single drive: Install and migrate to a new single SSD, or NVMe M.2 if your MB supports it, using something like Samsung Data Migration. This is the easiest solution but could present minor issues with installation paths and at worst case would require a re-install of the CyTOF software and the Java path might need to be re-directed in the CyTOF software. I don't imagine bandwidth would be an issue, I can fire up the resource monitor during acquisition to see what the disk usage is.

2) Sequentially replace RAID member disks: Purchase 2 new SSDs preferably slightly larger capacity for the C:/ RAID1. Remove and replace the single faulty drive with a new SSD (Between Intel Storage software or bios and the MB manual you should be able to identify the SATA port, or you could trial and error by unplugging one at a time). Reboot, CTRL-I during the bios post when prompted to enter the RAID utility and select the new drive to Rebuild the degraded RAID. Alternatively, it should be possible, to do this in the OS with the Intel Storage software. After rebuilding the RAID1 repeat the process with the second SSD.

3) RAID to RAID migration: You could install the new SSDs, set up a second RAID1, boot into windows and data migrate over. The problem here is Asus MB uses Marvell SATA controllers for 2 ports and Intel for the rest. I think everything is on the Intel ports so if there are not enough plugs for 2 more drives you’ll need to use the Marvell ports which may require some poking around in the bios increasing your odds of complications.

If the RAID1 drives falls out of sync Windows will prompt you to repair, don’t do it! I found that out the hard way. Good luck!

Regards,
-Greg Chang
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markyyy

Participant

Posts: 15

Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:09 pm

Post Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:34 pm

Re: Replacing hard drive on CyTOF2 workstation

Hi Greg,

Thank you so much for the response. As you pointed out, keeping the RAID1 setup for the system drive (the one with which I was experiencing a degradation error) is a good idea for redundancy and data protection.

I ended up going with something similar to your suggestion #2. I followed these directions (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... l-rst.html) pretty much verbatim and it was a total breeze. The only change thing I had to do differently was to disable the RAID configuration on the the two old drives prior to creating a system image (I was getting errors that wouldn't allow me to create e a system image before thinking to do this). I then booted from the good old drive, created a system image, and then re-enabled RAID config on the two old drives. Then moved ahead with step 1 form the linked page.

Now running two 500GB Samsung 860PRO SSDs in RAID1 config for the system drive. So glad I went this route.

Thank you every much for the help.

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