Lost connectivity to my RAID 5 configuration

[GeekyTech007]

I am troubleshooting a RAID 5 configuration on a Window XP Pro machine. It was being used for data storage on the network. At some point I lost connectivity to the network drive (RAID)? I also had a network bridge which has disappeared as well? The machine has 2 NIC's installed on it which I don't understand its purpose for 2 NIC's? So as a temporary solution I copied the data on an external hard drive via USB. Then connected it on another machine and made it a shared network Drive. Any suggestion on restoring my RAID 5 array connection and network bridge? I have 3 stations, 3 switches and one Router.

 

[Nodsu]

Uhm.. If you lost access to the RAID and the data, how could you copy it to the eternal drive? Or, do you mean that other computers could no longer access the machine with the raid array?

There is a big difference between network access and local access!

 

[AlbertLionheart]

2 x NICs usually means the system is logging on to two different networks with two completely different sets of protocols and settings.
If you can access the RAID5 data then perhaps the problem is with the NICs and not the RAID settings?

 

[GeekyTech007]

To clarify, network access. I can access the RAID at the local machine that it is on.

 

[Nodsu]

OK. "lost access" means what? Surely the client computer doesn't say "lost access", does it? What error message exactly? Do you have basic network connectivity a la can you ping the server from the client machines?

 

[GeekyTech007]

To be more clear, the network is a workgroup. There is no server, its just Win XP (Station 6) with a RAID configuration. It was being used to store data and thats all. To answer your question, no I cannot ping station 6 from any other. And it doesn't show up when I try to MAP the shared Network drive (RAID)? For some reason DHCP was disabled at the router. So the stations have there IP addresses manually inputed. By the way I have 6 stations connected.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

So if the problem is not with the RAID it must be with the router. Have you tried resetting it and restoring the DHCP function?

 

[Nodsu]

Does the server machine (the one with RAID) have any network connectivity at all? Can you get online with it? Can you ping other stations and your router?

If yes, then you either have a firewall on that machine that is blocking all access or you have disable the file sharing feature.

If no, then you have some serious network misconfiguration. Start by running "ipconfig /all" and posting the output here.

 

[GeekyTech007]

Yes, the computer (station 6) with the RAID config. does have online (Internet) connectivity and also able to ping to the Router. But only the router and not the rest of the stations. When I get a chance, I will post the results of "ipconfig/all".