Replacing Raid 5 drive.

[e46fan]

I have a old Proliant 3000 server with one drive down. I have the same drive in a R&D server. Can I use that drive from the R&D server without erasing the drive first and hot swap it for the bad drive? Will rebuild ok with data on it?

Thanks.

 

[itsp1965]

Unfortunately no, I have tried before swapping from an existing live server, but it didn't work. The drive you are replacing it with needs to be erased before it can be used in the array.

 

[Lou0686]

Hi,

And unfortunately it has to be erased with the Compaq System erase utility. Performing a normal erase will only remove the data, you need to get rid of the RAID info that is also stored on the disk.

Lou

 

[itsp1965]

That is correct Lou, sorry for leaving that out.

 

[e46fan]

Ok thanks everyone, thats kind of what I thought. I guess I'll start erase now.

 

[TheLad]

Excuse my ignorance but in my experience the replacement drive does not need to be blank before you add it into a RAID 5 array as the server will automatically start restriping RAID data to the replacement disk blanking what was on it anyway?? The RAID data will automatically get removed and it is only if you boot with the replacement disk in that the server will have issues.

Ideally it is wise for the disk to be blank, but not a necessity I would have thought.

For information, I had a failed 18.2Gb Ultra drive in a Proliant 7000 server so I replaced it with a drive straight out of a decomissionned Proliant 3000 server - no issues.

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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[itsp1965]

You would figure it would work that way, unfortunately when I had to replace a defective drive on a Proliant 2500 it wouldn't accept it until I had it erased.

 

[nidon]

have to agree with TheLAD, the drive does not need to be blank (although prefferred) the existing info from the arry,controller and system board will take pecidence over any info on the drive.

 

[ricpinto]

I agree with TheLad: Actually even pulling the HDD half way and push it back within less than a second, the array will rebuild sucessfully after sometime. So it means no need to erase first, but maybe there's an exemption..


Lou0686:

What's your hardware? ex. HDD/RAID card/server model and BIOS version.

 

[Aragorn002]

All,

I work for a Compaq/HP Reseller. Lots of experience with this kit. Theoretically you should be able to replace the faulty HDD with one from another server without erasing it. I have done this many times.

However, if you have the oppertunity to erase the new disk before you put it in, you should erase it. This will prevent any problems with firmware versions etc.