Array Manager should also tell you what RAID level you are running.

Does AM show the disk as degraded?  I think if you were to run diagnostics (which I would recommend), it would probably fail.

Most of the folks who are knowledgable about the PERC equipment hang out on the Storage or the Server boards.  If this were my machine, however, I would need to open it up and physically look at what is there to be sure.  It is my understanding that hardware RAID boards still need to have a RAID 0 consisting of one drive configured to use a single drive.  It seems strange, but the computer won't use the disk otherwise.

EDIT:  By the way, I would still get ready to replace the drive.  The controller is reporting that the drive is no longer working inn accordance with its specifications.

Oops!  Seems the post got moved while I was typing, it is now on the Server board.  Found it on Disk Drives originally.  Sorry for any confusion.

thank you for your answer. I am taking backups thankfully. I am in another state and won't get my hands on the unit until next week. I was originally wondering about how to order an identical SCCI drive, but i guess it makes sense to upgrade. Since I take images of the drive and not file level, can I put that back on a dissimilar set of drives?

thanks,

1. An array is one or more disks working together as a single "unit" of storage.  From the message, your drive is dying, and if configured in an array, it may have an impact on your array.  You should make sure you have a backup of the data while it is still accessible, and you should obtain a replacement drive.

2. Do you think you have a RAID 0?  Nothing you said indicates that you have a RAID 0, unless you think you do.  To make sure, you can look in OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA), under Storage, PERC, Virtual Disks; you can boot to the CTRL-M utility during POST, under Configure, View/Add, F3; or you can do the math - if you have two 73GB drives in your server, but the OS can only see/use around 68GB total, then they are most likely mirrored (RAID 1), but if you have around 130GB of total storage space in the OS, they would have to be a RAID 0 (although both of these scenarios can vary, but are uncommon).

AM does not show degraded. It does say "0". How do you recover a Raid 0 when you replace the hard drive? From a backup?

thanks,

As far as the controller and drives go, it won't matter.  Usually ... let's say you currently have two 36GB drives (around 68GB of storage space), and you replace those 36GB drives with 73GB drives in a RAID 1, you'll be restoring that 68GB to approximately 68GB of usable disk space on the RAID 1.  If you restored the image to 146GB drives in a RAID 1, after restoring the 68GB image to the disks, then you would need to use partitioning tools (or diskpart, if you have a "data" partition) to extend the space into the newly available 68GB of disk space (or create a new partition with the new space).

From backup.  Unfortunately, RAID 0 has no redunancy at all.  You replace the drive, delete the array in CTRL-M, create AND initialize a new RAID 0, then restore.  This might be a good opportunity to get two larger drives and configure them in a RAID 1 :)

Funny though, Dell array manager still says it is healthy, but getting the above message.

thanks,