I've configured a couple raid arrays before, but I've been lucky enough to never have had to replace a failed drive, until now. I have a hard drive coming in from Dell to replace my failed 0 ID drive in the array. This is a normal cable SCSI hookup and not a hot- swappable setup. I plan on powering down the server replacing the drive, and making sure its setup with the 0 SCSI ID. When I power up should I expect the rebuild to be automatic, or do I need to run the raid setup? Will I be allowed to boot into windows if I have to run the setup, and start the rebuild manually? If it starts the rebuild automatically will it boot into windows automatically? I guess I'm basically looking for a small overview on what to expect. Thanks to any respondents

With RAID-5 a failed hard drive will not bring down the array. It will keep functioning normally - perhaps slower though. So you should have the same access to Windows and all data that you currently have. So, once you replace the drive the process from there will be determined by your RAID-5 setup. Software vs. Hardware, if hardware, what type of hardware you have. Normally you will need to go tot he same configuration you went to to create the array and then find the options to rebuild the array. It shouldn't rebuild automatically. Do note that the rebuild process can take a good bit of time depending on size of the array and the specs of the PC. Michael J

Michael, Thanks for the info! I know about raid 5 and how its fault tolerance works, but from what you tell me I'll just expect a manual rebuild. I have question though, do I have to rebuild the array, or just the new drive? Will I be able to boot into windows, while the rebuild is in progress? I'm hoping for a max of 10 minutes of downtime that's why I ask, and I know a rebuild takes a while. Thanks again

Wouldn't make sense to have an automatic rebuild, would it? Just because you put a new drive in the system you wouldn't want it to assume you are wanting it to be rebuilt into the array - it might be a disk with important data. Anyway, my only experience rebuilding a RAID-5 array was with using Software RAID in Windows 2003. In that case you have to boot into Windows before starting the rebuild process. I was able to use windows and applications on that machine during the rebuild process. I have never had the need to do a rebuild using hardware RAID, but I would have to assume that once you begin the rebuild process you should be able to access Windows and Apps. That's the whole point of RAID-5 - availability. If you have hot-swappable drives you are supposed to be able to swap out a drive on-the-fly. Michael J