8400 raid drive going bad

tclarke:

I have an 8400 with dual 160G sata drives in a factory raid configuration. Recently one of the drives has been identified as corrupt.

If I just replace the one bad drive, can it be any sata large enough or does it have to match more closely for the raid to work?

Even the smallest new drive would be far larger in size so is this a problem?

If I pop in the new drive will the raid automatically partition and copy from the existing good drive or do I need to manually format/partition it?

The 2nd drive will go bad too, at that point I may want to just use the one drive. Do I do anything special to disable the raid?

 

What RAID array do you have RAID 0 or 1?

If you have RAID 0 and a drive is failing, be sure you have a backup as you will lose all of your files and have to reinstall your OS, apps and restore your data after you replace the failed drive.

If you have RAID 1 then you can simply replace the bad drive and the RAID 1 array will automatcially rebuild and mirror the good drive to the new drive. It's best to get the same drive (size, manufacturer) as you have now to avoid any inconsistencies. But you can have any size larger (e.g. 500GB) than your 160GB and will work as the RAID 1 array will be rebuilt to 160GB.  If you don't want to continue using RAID 1, you can "break" the RAID array via a reboot then CTRL + I and delete the RAID 1 array. You will not lose any data. Then you can just use your good 160GB drive and buy a new drive (larger) and use it for backups or additional space.