Issues with a server's RAID controller

[dcb-z]

I'll open this up by saying I have no experience with RAID controllers/setups and have really no knowledge aside from "disks work together and it's either speedy or safer." About all I do for this server is create student accounts every year and generally sit around as the "smart server person" behind the desk who has gone to a few trainings, but I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to RAID setups (I had assumed this server used one, but never really looked into it).

 

 

Here's how the problem went and the steps I've taken thus far:

 

Today I was informed that the server (it's a desktop-style server, not a rack mounted) started making really loud, constant beeps, so the teacher in the room at the time unplugged it to make it stop. The lady I'm usually with told me about it and took me to go have a look.

 

I booted the server up and when it reached the "RAID BIOS," a message came up saying that a "foreign configuration" was detected. Since I have no knowledge of RAID, I left it alone and it eventually continued. As soon as it left that screen, it started doing a long beep once every second or two. The server still booted to the screen that says "Applying Computer Settings" on Windows Server 2008 (the computers and software and the like belongs to the school; they give me free roam to do my own troubleshooting in that class, but they may not appreciate me overhauling their server) but hung there for a long time, and the beeping didn't stop.

 

I restarted the server and went into the RAID configuration window, where it told me that "Disk 0" was foreign. The other disk displayed all of it's information just fine. I shut it off reseated the RAID controller and made sure everything was securely plugged in and got no results. Next I swapped the labeled SATA cables and tried booting it that way, and this time the configuration screen told me that the new drive 0 was foreign (the "new" drive 0 was the one that displayed just fine earlier). The server was still beeping as it was before.

 

I shut the server down decided I would troubleshoot both hard drives individually. The original "Disk 0" got to the loading screen, but then it gave me a black screen. "Disk 1" booted to the logon screen and worked just fine. The server also stopped beeping at me.

 

Since it was the end of the day and I had already stayed an hour after school ended, I called it a day, shut the server down, and figured I'd set it up tomorrow. I'm assuming that it's an issue with the RAID controller rather than the hard drives, though.

 

 

All of that aside, I really don't want to leave the server running off of just one drive. I'd like to fix this without having to try to rebuild the array (we have no backups, IT never gave me any drives I could use for that even though I requested it several times last year) or get a new controller. Is there anything that I can try to fix it? I'm in that class at the end of the day, so I'm able to stay late. I cannot access any forums at the school, nor are we allowed to use smartphones, so I'll have to just write down suggestions that are posted and try them when I get to school tomorrow.

 

I realize that I probably can't get a whole lot of help without specs, so I'll try to get them tomorrow. For now, here's what I'm guessing that it has:

CPU: Intel Xeon 3XXX

RAM: 8GB?

HDD: 500GB (displayed as 469 or something) x2 running in RAID0

Mobo: Don't know

RAID controller: Don't know

GPU: N/A

OS: Windows Server 2008 R2

 

Any help is appreciated, I really need this fixed.

[dcb-z]

Small bump, any suggestions?