If the drives work in a 2950 (note: initializing those drives did probably wipe all data off of them), I'd power down the MD3000i and reseat all drives, the raid controllers and the powersupplies (something could be off a bit due to the transport).

If the issue persists, power down and try 2 different drives in the 2 slots where those 2 suspect drives were. This could tell you if it's the backplane/SAS-connector or something else.

Thank you. The approach you suggest is a logical approach to the problem.

Good news: The backplane works perfectly. Working drives continue to work when moved to the vacant slots.

Bad news: The 2950 RAID controller now identifies the disks as "failed" so I can no longer use that to initialize them.

And then it gets worse: Another disk, one that has not been moved between slots, has now failed. Fortunately the hot spare went in-use. I was able to replace this failed drive with an unassigned disk from another slot.

Aside: The original Hot Spare returned to standby & the new disk became assigned. I expected it to act like a PS 6010: the hot spare becoming assigned & the replacement becoming the next hot spare. Is this normal?

All the disks were working prior to the move & the move seemed smooth; no bumps. The ambient air temperature in the new room is warmer than the old & the disks were not left to aclimatise prior to spin-up. I would not be surprised to learn that I made other mistakes during the move. Is there an undocumented SMcli to re-intialize & re-test a failed disk?

Everytime I power down and back up these days.  Drives go bad......

The MD3000i sans and their attached MD1000's are up 24/7 for 4+ years now.      The poor drives are tired it would seem.