Drive Failure E0D76

It's not likely the controller.  It is more likely the backplane or cable, but depending what is going on, it could be a problem with your array too.

have tried four different hard drives to replace the one that is said to be bad, blinking amber light.   But all four did not seem to work

What exactly did you do to replace it and what exactly happened when you did it?

Here is a related post that may help - http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19271856.aspx

Here is their advice -

E0D76, is a drive failure.  Since this is a stand alone drive, you can try to go into the controller bios and force it back online.  I am guessing the same is true for the new drive you have in the system.  Since it is a stand alone drive the system was not up and running so the last stat the controller has for that slot is failed.  You can go in and force the new drive online as well.  Then install the OS and restore from a backup.

In that post, the guy had a standalone drive (meaning a single-disk RAID 0 since RAID was enabled for the other LD's/VD's he listed), also meaning there was no redundancy, so a rebuild is impossible.  That is an unusual setup, so let's ask the question:  How many drives do you have installed and what RAID configuration(s) are you running (if any)?  If the disk is in a RAID 0, then try to force it online - there is no other way to recover- but if it is in a redundant RAID array (RAID 1, 5, or 10) and you are trying to get it to rebuild into the array, then answer the questions I asked above.

I was able to find three drives of the same type (18GB SCSI) that had been in storage and tried them.  There is a chance that they aren't in the best of condition but all I had. 

When I inserted them into the server, the error would clear for a while and then comeback.  For the third, the error never cleared.  I'm assuing that for the first two, the system was at least able to read them and start the rebuild of the RAID but couldn't finish. 

The fourth drive was from the spare server we have as a backup for this server.  The drive is working now, back in the spare server, that is why I am kind of concerned the problem is not with the hard drives, but I am not sure.

I am getting the three spares low level formated and going to try them again.  I am open to any suggestions because as of now, management does not want to buy a new drive.

This server has 4 drives in a RAID 5 configuration, as it came from Dell.  Right now, the server is still up and running on its three remaining drives.

Depending on a number of things, the error may not go away until the server has been rebooted or the hardware logs cleared, but that doesn't mean that it has or hasn't done what it needs to.  It is possible the drive started/finished rebuilding but the system still showed the error.  This is typical of out of date firmware on the PERC and/or ESM.  Did the drive start flashing amber instead of green or alternating between green/amber?

If the rebuild started but failed, there is a good chance that your array has become corrupted (or your really old 18GB drives just aren't up to the task). 

One thing to check ... you should NOT be mixing U160 and U320 drives in the server ... make sure they are all one or the other.

Drives are cheap - as low as $10 on eBay - so unless they plan to decommission the server now, it is crazy not to buy a replacement if none of your replacements work and/or you cannot verify whether or not they are good.

What OS do you have installed?

The drive from the spare server is the identical type to the one that failed in my production server, so they are the same, U160, from Dell.

Not sure about the ones I have in storage.  Will have to see if I can look that up. 

Two of them just finished the format and I am trying one now.  I do not remember about the light.  Think that after the LCD went from blue to amber, the top light on the drive was blinking amber, but, again, not sure.

I agree about the low cost of the drives.

This server (Windows 2000) is one that if we even reboot it, that will cause an outage, so we have to do that off hours. 

Thanks for all the advice.  Fingers crossed.

Does the server have OMSA or Array Manager installed?  If so, you can export a controller log, which might shed some light on exactly what is happening.  If not, you can install it:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/Product/poweredge-xeo2650?driverId=R183698&osCode=WNT5&fileId=2731119587&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SM

Download and run to extract, then run C:\Openmanage\windows\setup.exe.  Choose Custom to make sure that the Storage options are installed.  It will require a reboot on this system.  Add yourservernameoripaddress:1311 to IE's Intranet Zone, then go to Storage, PERC, Information/Configuration (link at top of page), Export Log from dropdown menu for the controller.