I am running several web servers with Windows Advanced Server 2000. All are set up with 5 or more SCA SCSI disks in a RAID-5 array. When setting them up a couple of years ago, I purchased disks in lots so I would have replacements. A disk has finally failed, and I backed up the data, shut down the server, and replaced the disk. Upon restart, I wrote the signature and marked the disk as dynamic. However, when it's time to repair the volume, the "repair" option is not visible. "Regenerate parity" does nothing, of course. I've tried a few other identical disks, hoping that it's not just that the first new ones had a little less space than the one that failed. The disks are all from the same lot, and I purchased them for just such a situation as this. If I must always regerate the volume and restore from backup, then the only advantage to the W2K software RAID-5 seems to be that the unit stays up until I can take it offline and rebuild the thing. I also tried DISKPART, but the "repair" command listed on the MS support site is not available in the version I obtained.
It's been awhile since my limited training, but am I doing something stupid or just not getting it? Following the written procedures doesn't seem to be working. Is hardware RAID the only real solution to repair without a complete volume rebuild?
Would an obviously larger disk be a worthy try? The steps are pretty large in the SCSI world, so I'll waste some disk space, but if it would work, I'd be happy to do it.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
