> And which Dell onboard raid controller do you have?
> And are you using SCSI, SATA or IDE drives?
>
> --
> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
> ============================
>
> "Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eW9L0tGoKHA.1928@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>> Do you have Dell OpenManage or Server Administrator installed on the
>> server so you can look at the health of the RAID array and/or drives?
>>
>> --
>> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
>> ============================
>>
>> "Jeff Teel" sugardog.com> wrote in message
>> news:OebUbXGoKHA.5552@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>> Hi Merv
>>>
>>> This is a RAID 1 config and uses the onboard controller. I've not had
>>> much experience with RAID controllers but have some understanding of
>>> them. I remember when one of the drives went south in the servers
>>> younger years there wasn't anything obvious in the log (on the Windows
>>> side of things) that said there was a harddrive problem. At that time
>>> Dell support did the diagnosing and repair of the the system. I was
>>> present when the support person did the work but that has been a few
>>> years now and I've probably forgotten some of the steps that he took
>>> when he installed the new drive and got the rebuild started.
>>>
>>> Jeff
>>>
>>> "Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:%%23eJWFYBoKHA.5696@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>>> Is this Raid 1 (2 drives) or Raid 5 (3 or more drives)? And is there a
>>>> hardware Raid card in the server?
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
>>>> ============================
>>>>
>>>> "Jeff Teel" sugardog.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:OD3qbQ8nKHA.3664@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>>>> Thank you for your input Cliff. This server has not browsed the
>>>>> Internet for a good 48 months. I just don't have a habit of doing
>>>>> that. If there is an infection I can say for sure that it didn't come
>>>>> from that. Unless it sat dormant for that long and then reared it's
>>>>> ugly head! I am the only admin for this server. It was used for the
>>>>> family business to start with and is now used for family member e-mail
>>>>> and Internet access. It does have Microsoft 2000 SQL installed but it
>>>>> isn't being used.
>>>>>
>>>>> I will say that after reading thru the responses from you guys that it
>>>>> has brought back some memories of something that happened when with
>>>>> this server was younger. If I recall it was when the server had been
>>>>> online for close to three years. As I think back it had symptoms
>>>>> similar to what it has now and one of the RAID drives was bad. When
>>>>> the system was trying to rebuild/synch the bad drive it finally ran
>>>>> out of power to get that done and froze. Is that something that would
>>>>> happen at a consistent time?
>>>>>
>>>>> To answer your questions regarding third party-apps.......I haven't
>>>>> installed any applications on the server (other than Windows Updates)
>>>>> for months. Mainly because I didn't want to use any more disk space
>>>>> and because everything was working good.
>>>>>
>>>>> Again I want to thank you guys for your input. I think I will pursue
>>>>> the hard drive area next. If I can determine that one of the drives
>>>>> has gone south can I unplug that drive and boot the server and see if
>>>>> it does not freeze after an hour or so?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Cliff Galiher - MVP" gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:eWAxJ07nKHA.6084@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>I agree with Merv that this *could* be hardware related, but there is
>>>>>>a part of me that is suspicious that the time it takes for the system
>>>>>>to lock up seems to be consistently be an hour and a half. Usually
>>>>>>hardware failures are intermittent (or constant) enough to happen
>>>>>>immediately or strike at random times. Even thermal problems happen
>>>>>>under load, not at an hour.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So I'm thinking this may be a resource issue. Are there 3rd-party
>>>>>> apps installed on the server? Thinks like MySQL or PostGreSQL
>>>>>> (Spiceworks has used each of these in different versions, and
>>>>>> spiceworks seems to be popular with small IT shops these days) or
>>>>>> Java...etc. You could have an app misbehaving, slowly (but
>>>>>> methodically) chewing memory, and presto, system lock at a
>>>>>> predictable time every time.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, is it possible that the server has been infected with malware?
>>>>>> Specifically the "google hack" that A/V products were not prepared to
>>>>>> scan for? Once compromised, A/V is rarely successful at detecting
>>>>>> and cleaning an already infected machine. In short, have been
>>>>>> browsing on the server * at all?*
>>>>>>
>>>>>> All of these avenues are worth pursuing, one at a time...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -Cliff
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "JTeel" sugardog.remove.com> wrote in message
>>>>>> news:#GTNhi7nKHA.5464@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>> I am willing to try most anything at this point Merv! I looked in
>>>>>>> the system log just after it happened and the only red flags were
>>>>>>> the Exchange errors when the Exchange store would not mount which I
>>>>>>> believe was because of how I had to "kill" or shutdown the OS. This
>>>>>>> server has been running for nearly six years with few problems. It
>>>>>>> has 2 GB of RAM so I think that is enough. What do you think?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There are no external drives connected to the server via USB or any
>>>>>>> tape drives. When I unplug the LAN side Ethernet as well as the WAN
>>>>>>> Ethernet there is no is no change. It will be normal for around an
>>>>>>> hour and a half or so and then the desktop seems to freeze.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in
>>>>>>> message news:eofjQo6nKHA.1548@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>> Have you checked for a hard drive or controller problem? Maybe run
>>>>>>>> chkdsk /r ?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Anything in the event logs on the server?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Have you disconnected all external devices (like USB drives and
>>>>>>>> maybe even any interior tapes drives), rebooted and then check
>>>>>>>> performance?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> When the problem occurs, if you disconnect the Ethernet cable(s),
>>>>>>>> does performance improve?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Do you have enough RAM in the server?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
>>>>>>>> ============================
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> "Jeff Teel" sugardog.com> wrote in message
>>>>>>>> news:uYCpTK6nKHA.1928@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>>>> I first started noticing problems when I was at a remote location
>>>>>>>>> and it took longer than normal to log on to Outlook Web Access
>>>>>>>>> (Away from the Server on the WAN side of the network). I was able
>>>>>>>>> to a few times during the day but as the day went on I just got
>>>>>>>>> the logon screen for OWA but was not able to log in. When I got
>>>>>>>>> back to the SBS location I tried to logon to the SBS desktop and
>>>>>>>>> the system was not responding to Ctrl Alt Del. I just could not
>>>>>>>>> access the server desktop so I held the power button in to power
>>>>>>>>> down. I hated to but I didn't know what else to do. After I
>>>>>>>>> restarted the server things seemed to work ok other than the
>>>>>>>>> Exchange Store would not mount which I expected since I powered
>>>>>>>>> down the way I did. Over the past days I have tried doing a backup
>>>>>>>>> restore from the day before and a backup restore from three days
>>>>>>>>> before this all started and the system still seems to become
>>>>>>>>> unresponsive after an hour or two. One thing that I suspect but am
>>>>>>>>> just not sure about is that the C: drive may be getting too full.
>>>>>>>>> While there is still 1.5GB of space remaining out of a 16GB
>>>>>>>>> partition I don't know if that is enough space for the OS to
>>>>>>>>> function properly. My Exchange store is on another partition along
>>>>>>>>> with the swapfile for the OS. I have ran hardware diagnostics and
>>>>>>>>> have not seen any red flags. My Anti Virus definitions have been
>>>>>>>>> kept up-to-date and Trend WFB shows not problems. If anyone has
>>>>>>>>> more details that would help I am more than happy to give them. It
>>>>>>>>> just seems that everything I try ends up with the same result and
>>>>>>>>> I didn't want to do a clean install unless it was necessary. If
>>>>>>>>> anyone has any ideas I would be more than happy to hear them!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks For Your Time
>>>>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>

>>>
>>>