RAID hard drive bad

[Hart4God]

I have a Dell E310 been having problems with the hard drive ever since I bought this thing! Dell would not replace the hard drive just fix it. This computer has crashed 4 time now. I found out it is RAID hard drives(2 drives) I need to get a new hard drive. Dell will not help... out of warrenty.
Can I switch the hard drives hoping the second one is good or do I have to buy 2 or 1 hard drive and which one is bad? Money is an issue so the cheapest is best for now. I need this computer for homeschooling.
Please help.... Thank you.

[michaewlewis]

you can get one drive. make sure it is the same size and speed, preferably the same model too. Do you know which drive is bad?
check www.newegg.com for prices.

[Hart4God]

No I do not know which one is bad is there a why to find out?

Thank you

[michaewlewis]

when you start up your computer it should tell you after the bios posts.
on my intel motherboard, I can hit Ctrl-I at a certain point (it says when) and I can do RAID configuration. Your computer should have something similar.

[Richenstony]

Or , when your computer 1st boots it will actual say whether the status is ok our not ......

Tony..


Also give this a whirl

: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Active-SMART.shtml

Its a free trial what you are restricted to im not sure ..... but its worth a shot...

[Hart4God]

Thank you I will try it all..
Let you know if I am successful

[Hart4God]

I downloaded the program and found out my hard drive is bad.
Can I just switch the drives? what would that do? Since one is just for backup if I were to just switch them maybe the computer will work ok till I get a new set of hard drives.

[Richenstony]

I downloaded the program and found out my hard drive is bad.
Can I just switch the drives? what would that do? Since one is just for backup if I were to just switch them maybe the computer will work ok till I get a new set of hard drives.

Ok well you could just reformat the HD its faulty at the moment anyway and see if that does the trick , its worth a shot ...... and yes try switching them 2 ....

[michaewlewis]

Oh, ya. Take the faulty one out, the other one should still work, but without RAID functionality. Not sure which is faulty? Take one out and see if it boots. If it does, that's the good one. If thatworks and you don't need RAID, don't bother buying another hdd.