Re: [cobalt-users] Raq4 - Help - Anyone replaced a hard drive?

["Gerald Waugh" <gerald@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Anthony Cook" <ant_cook@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> We've had a hard disk failure on our RaQ4r.  So we've got to replace the
> hard drive.
>
<snip>
> 1. The disk in the RaQ (Seagate ST330621A 30gb) is no longer available,
> Seagate have replaced it with an update model.  And over 20 suppliers here
> in the UK do not have the old one on their shelves.  So it means getting
> another drive, by another manufacturer.  Has anyone else done this, and have
> they done this with a RaQ4r RAID?  What if the new drive is slightly smaller
> than the existing drive?

I don't know, but if I did a swag, I'd make the new drive slightly bigger!


> 2. What will happen with the RAID when the box is switched back on again?

See below, it will evntually rebuild the new drive.

> Should I swap the disks around so that the working Secondary drive is put in
> the primary slot and the new drive is put in the old secondary slot. Or
> should the new drive go in the Secondary bay.  I don't want the RAID to
> think that the formated drive is the one to copy over the broken one.

It will not be able to boot from the new drive (no boot record), so again I swag
that won't be a problem.
Although my first experience with this type of thing was that the thing would
not boot
until I put the good drive in the left bay (as you face the front of the RaQ).
Make sure you backup the working drive, as you may end up having to do a
restore,
which means, have a restore CD ready!

> What
> about partitioning the new drive or formating it?  Does this need to be done
> before installing?
>

I just replaced a drive on another  RaQ4R, (I had to do a restore). I had the
good drive in the
right bay as you face the front of the RaQ. I had errors during the restore, hdb
error xxxx
So I went ahead and let the restore finish.

When I accessed the RaQ through the GUI and checked RAID, I found that it was
copying data to the new drive, It took almost an hour to finish, then it said
that RAID was OK.

HTH,
Gerald