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[MoonyMoore]

Hi all, my old DNS-345 died a couple of days ago so I got it replaced. However I didn't know I needed to put back the hdd into the same slot arrangement as the old one and I didn't note it down.

How do I go about solving this?

[ivan]

Do you remember how your disks were setup - JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+spare, RAID 10.  Each has its own requirements for replacing disks.

The other thing is, do you have a full tested backup you could use if necessary?

Once we know the answers we should be able to give more constructive help.

[MoonyMoore]

Hi Ivan, it's RAID 5. It's done by an ex co worker of mine a long time ago so I do not have any backup.

[ivan]

No backup - shame on you.  You must know that any form of RAID array is not a backup on its own but it can be part of a backup strategy (example: we backup our servers to a RAID 1 storage array which in turn is backed up to two local RAID 1 DNS-320/343 and a remote RAID 1 DNS-345.  Yes we have had a couple of disks fail in the arrays bur we never lost any data).  Rant off.

Now you do have a problem with RAID 5 because of the distributed parity stripe.  My storage guy has been 'playing' with RAID arrays to find what you can and can't do with them.  He found http://www.freeraidrecovery.com/library/raid5-recovery.aspx which he says has helped a lot.  Yes, it is not instant and requires input on your part but it does allow you to do it rather than spending very large sums of money to have an outside organisation do it for you (it also allows me not to say the same thing here).

Another thing you should be aware of is that the array might be in an unstable state depending on if there was any write activity going on at the time the unit failed.  This can make recovery much more difficult.

When you get your array back up please, for your own safety, make a backup and keep it safe.

[FurryNutz]

Any status on this? 

Hi Ivan, it's RAID 5. It's done by an ex co worker of mine a long time ago so I do not have any backup.