Compaq 6500 smartarray 3200 rebuild problem

[countrypaul]

I have a Compaq 6500 with a Smartarray 3200 controller which had 5 x 4.3GB disks configured as a raid 5 single array. The server runs Win2K.

One disk has failed so I have tried to replace it - three times, once with a 4.3 GB drive and twice with 9Gb drives.

As the machine boots it indicates press F1 to rebuild and F2 to skip the rebuild. Selecting F1 and rebuilding appears to work, after some time disk activity stops and the Array Config utility on the smartstart disk shows 5 drives in the array - all appears fine. However when I reboot, along with a message to the effect that the previous rebuild was aborted. The top green led of the disk being rebuilt never lights.

I cannot believe that all three drive have been faulty, as they do not show any fault light on at any point. Have I done something wrong?, have I missed something? Any suggestions as to how to resolve the problem?

 

[technome]

Sounds odd, unlikely the 3 disks were bad. Is the firmware updated on the array controller.

The firmware on the disks may be different versions. This can cause a situation like this, but upgrading disk firmware on drives can be risky. 90% of the time no problem, but the other 10% is disaster. Unlikely but perhaps the backplane connector for the slot is causing a poor connection.

 

[terry712]

firstly - i confused why you are rebooting it

it should just be that you slap drive in and it rebuilds and thats it.

i have seen it once and on a similar model ie the 3000 that you replace the drive and it fails after a few hours , swap it again and it does same thing . try the supposed 2 dead drive somewhere else and they are fine - what we eventually had to do was firstly swap the backplane and then the drive.

 

[countrypaul]

The machine is being rebooted because I wanted to check whether the array has rebuilt properly or not as it was during a boot sequence I noticed the problem. There is significant disk activity after selecting F1 to rebuild and after a few minutes the activity stops (worryingly all the lights on the drive go out). When the array is accessedthe lights on the other 4 drives flash but not the one in question. The ACU appears to think that all is well.

The machine is used for testing and is not running all the time.

 

[terry712]

not sure if the array controller supports it - but can you shuffle the array to use a spare drive slot and put the drive in it to see if it's that controller

i know i've done this on a 3000 - the 6000 series is similar
not sure of a 6500