Failed HDD on RAID1 array - replacing the failed HDD with a SSD?

james73 · 26 Feb 2022 at 20:09

Hello all.

I have a RAID1 array on my ASUS Z97-A motherboard, built around late 2014/early 2015. The 2 x HDDs were WD 2Tb drives.

I've just had one of the WD HDDs fail. So I've just ordered 2 x Crucial 2Tb SSDs.

My question is: if I put one of the Crucial SSDs in as replacement for the failed WD will the array rebuild ok initially? Obviously I'm hoping it does, because I can then put the 2nd SSD in the array in place of the working HDD once it rebuilds the array the first time.

Anyone done this sort of thing before? :confused:

(ps - my boot drive(s) are on a separate SSD drive - the RAID array is for data storage)

Thanks in advance.

james73 · 26 Feb 2022 at 20:52

Thanks. For what it's worth, here's the RAID controller interface:

james73 · 26 Feb 2022 at 22:26

james73 · 6 Mar 2022 at 17:00

Just to update this.

The two SSD drives didn't arrive until tuesday. On the monday, I started up the PC and it did not report a fault on the WD HDD that it previously did. Once in Windows, the software (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) successfully rebuilt the array. No further problems appeared.

Once the SSDs arrived I replaced the WD HDD that had reported the fault with one of the SSDs and the array rebuilt ok in Windows. Then, I replaced the other WD HDD with the 2nd SSD and, again, it rebuilt the array ok. That was Thursday and everything seems fine.

I've kept the 2 WD HDDs - the one that didn't report a fault is still in the PC case on a different sata port and I will use this to clone the array periodically. I've got Macrium Reflect to do the cloning in Windows - anyone use this before? (I've only ever used CloneZilla before).

The WD HDD that reported the fault - I've got an old external enclosure that I'll put this in (it currently has a dead 1Tb drive in it) and I'll see how much longer it lives.

Cheers everyone.

james73 · 6 Mar 2022 at 17:09

Wing-Man said:
It’s much safer to set up a new raid and copy the info over and probably a hell of a lot faster. A basic raid controller will take a long time to rebuild ssd or not.

If you have programs installed you can clone the drive so they still function

I suspect you're right, but at least now I have a complete copy of all data from the array (I didn't this time last week) so any further issues I can just dump this array and build a new one.