How to replace failed disc in RAID 1 setup

Question

I have a Dimension 9100 which was delivered with two 149Gb discs in RAID1 setup. One has now failed and I need precise instructions for replacing it before the other fails! Can someone point me to good instructions? I need to know (a) what manufacturer/specifications the disc should be to be compatible, (b) how to idetify which is the failed disc and (c) how to go about re-establishing the mirror copy on the replacement disc. The current discs have a model number ST3160023A. I don't know who they are made by as I have not opened the box yet. One further point, if I can replace the failes disc with a higher capacity one, establish the mirror on it, and then replace the other original with a similar higher capacity, is that a feasible/sensible way of upgrading capacity without losing data etc. many thanks for any advice.

ejn63 · Answer

The current disc is a 160 G Seagate SATA drive. The RAID manager (either under Windows or in BIOS - CTRL-I to get in) will tell you whether it's drive 0 or drive 1 (or 1 or 2 if numbered that way).

Replace the drive with a same-size unit, go in with CTRL-I and rebuild the array.

Gerry Attric · Answer

All done. I found the Intel chipset support site which had good instructions. Just replaced the disc, identified by serial number given by the Intal matrix mangmenmt comsole) with a Maxtor 160 sata drive, and even though it was port 0, it knew that it should boot off the old array. Didn't need to use ctrl-i because it booted into windows from where I couild use the console to tell it to rebuild the RAID volume. Took about 4 hours. Thank you, whoever invented RAID. This is how disc failures should be.

Storage, Drives & Media

How to replace failed disc in RAID 1 setup

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