Raid drive dead, now what?

I'm using 4 drives in a raid 1 config (2 for the OS and 2 for data) and one
of the drives is already dead. I removed it and the machine is still running
fine. I'm sending the drive off for RA and should have a replacement soon.
What do I do when I get the new drive, just shove it back in? Or do I need
to format it first or do anything else with it?

BTW, I noticed something interesting about raid, although it's more reliable
there is now 4 times the chance that a drive will fail.

Michael

Hi Michael

Yes you are absolutely right. Getting more hard drives into a RAID 1
setup increases the chances of failure. Check out this article:

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=9&t=7128

Best Regards,
Gary Hendricks
www.build-your-own-computers.com

"Michael C" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:4353a188$0$30055$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.a u...
> I'm using 4 drives in a raid 1 config (2 for the OS and 2 for data) and
> one of the drives is already dead. I removed it and the machine is still
> running fine. I'm sending the drive off for RA and should have a
> replacement soon. What do I do when I get the new drive, just shove it
> back in? Or do I need to format it first or do anything else with it?
>
> BTW, I noticed something interesting about raid, although it's more
> reliable there is now 4 times the chance that a drive will fail.
>
> Michael
>

Yea, just attach the new drive where the old one was, go into the raid
controller menu on boot up and recreate the array. It should they copy all
the contents from the one good drive back onto the new one. Depending on the
controller it may boot into the raid config. page and do the mirror
semi-automatically (just asking for your OK to do it).
--


"I don't cheat to survive. I cheat to LIVE!!"
- Alceryes

"Alceryes" <replytopost@thankyou.com> wrote in message
news:xrQ4f.17553$q1.6579@newsread3.news.atl.earthl ink.net...
> Yea, just attach the new drive where the old one was, go into the raid
> controller menu on boot up and recreate the array. It should they copy all
> the contents from the one good drive back onto the new one. Depending on
> the controller it may boot into the raid config. page and do the mirror
> semi-automatically (just asking for your OK to do it).

Thanks for the reply. Does that mean it's not possible to do it while the
machine is running? Shutting it down is no problem I'm just curious.

Michael

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 10:21:12 +1000, "Michael C"
<me@nospam.com> wrote:

>"Alceryes" <replytopost@thankyou.com> wrote in message
>news:xrQ4f.17553$q1.6579@newsread3.news.atl.earth link.net...
>> Yea, just attach the new drive where the old one was, go into the raid
>> controller menu on boot up and recreate the array. It should they copy all
>> the contents from the one good drive back onto the new one. Depending on
>> the controller it may boot into the raid config. page and do the mirror
>> semi-automatically (just asking for your OK to do it).
>
>Thanks for the reply. Does that mean it's not possible to do it while the
>machine is running? Shutting it down is no problem I'm just curious.
>
>Michael
>

That depends on what your controller supports. Read the
documentation that came with it. If the machine doesn't
"need" to stay up, there is no good reason to not turn it
off, first.