Understand, Maintain, and Troubleshoot Hard Drives and RAID Storage in PowerEdge Servers

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How to better understand and troubleshoot Dell PowerEdge hard disk drives (HDD), RAID (RAID), PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC), and other storage hardware such as cables, backplane, so on. Through the navigational menu below, find Dell Knowledge Base articles for hard drives and RAID in PowerEdge servers to help you, or you can check some of our most helpful articles at the bottom.

Information: Hard Drive, RAID, and Controller types

• Various Hard Disk Drive Types - Understanding Hard Drive Types, RAID and RAID Controllers on Dell PowerEdge and Blade Chassis Servers
• Most commonly used RAID levels - Dell Servers - What are the RAID levels and their specifications?
• Different RAID controller types  - List of PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) types for Dell EMC systems
• Operating System Support: Installation and Configuration - The PowerEdge Server Operating System Support Library

Error Messages: What they mean and what to do next

• System Error messages and how they can be viewed - Error messages in the PowerEdge server system event log and how to view the error messages
• PERC Controller Battery and Memory errors - How to troubleshoot memory or battery errors on the PERC controller on Dell PowerEdge servers

Performance: Measure, diagnose, and resolve

• How to measure hard drive and RAID performance - Performance issues: How to measure.
• How to diagnose performance issues - Performance issues: How to diagnose / troubleshoot
• How to resolve performance issues - Performance issues: How to resolve / improve.
• PowerEdge HDD: What is predicted Drive Failure and how to solve it? - PowerEdge HDD: What is Predicted Drive Failure and How to Solve it?
• Double Faults and Punctures in RAID Arrays - Double Faults and Punctures in RAID Arrays

Maintenance: Automated and manual operations

• Automated Maintenance : Controller operations
• Manual Maintenance : RAID and HDD operations
• Dell PowerEdge : Update Server Firmware for Optimal Performance

Hard Drive Failure: Speed up replacement

• Diagnostic tools for advanced troubleshooting on PowerEdge servers
• Gathering logs for advanced troubleshooting on PowerEdge servers
• How to contact Dell EMC Enterprise Support and open an Online Case?

Video Archive for HDD and RAID-related content

• Dell Technical Videos
• Tech Support Dell
• QRL Dell

Helpful Videos regarding RAID

• PowerEdge R730xd: Remove or Install Midboard HDD Tray Assembly
• PowerEdge R730xd: Remove or Install Midboard Hard Drives
• PowerEdge R730cd: Remove or Install HDD backplane

Helpful Articles:

• PowerEdge HDD : How to identify the hard drive properties and update the firmware?
• Understanding Hard Drive Types, RAID and RAID Controllers on Dell PowerEdge and Blade Chassis Servers
• Dell EMC SupportAssist Enterprise 2.x – Guide and Download  
• The PowerEdge Server Operating System Support Library
• How to troubleshoot various Hard Drive, PERC, RAID and OpenManage issues (Hardware and Software RAID Controllers)
• Dell PowerEdge: Troubleshooting a Server that does not start (No Power, No POST, No Boot and No Video)