Hot Swap Hard Drive - Can Replacement Contain Old Data?

[chuston001]

I have a failed drive on a mirrored system, and would like to be able to use a hard drive from another server that we're no longer using. The hard drives are the same type and same size, but the replacement would contain data from the server it was originally being used in. Is it OK to just plug it into the slot where the bad drive was, and will the good drive mirror to it?

[Michael A. McKenney]

I have seen drives with data on them fail during swap. You want to replace a bad drive with a new drive. I don't even installed used drives as replacements. They usually fail soon after.

[Terry Hutchings · Accepted solution]

I generally have not had issues with drives which already contain data, BUT if this came from another server which had an array configured in it, then it could cause issues. If you put a drive from an existing array into this server as a replacement it could cause the controller to become confused by invalid array configuration data.

If you have to use this drive from the other server I would recommend running a system erase on the drive in order to make sure the array configuration, if anything, is wiped out.

[chuston001]

Used system erase utility from SmartStart CD, then placed replacement drive into failed drive slot. The RAID rebuilt and all is well again.