Smart 2SL controller says "Error occured reading RIS copy" when installing new drive

[Hal Overman]

I have a compaq proliant 5500 running a SMART 2SL Raid controller under windows 2000 server. Currently, I have 2 8 gig scsi drives installed in a Raid 1 configuration. I am wanting to add 2 36 gig hard drives (also in raid 1 configuration) to the array, which are from HP. The drives work great for I can use them on one of our workstations with an adaptec 2940UW and an 80 to 68 pin adapter.
Whenever I plug the drive into my proliant and bring up the Compaq array configuration utility, it sees the new drives fine. I can create the logical array. When I tell it to save the configuration, it errors out and will not let me do anything unless I restart the utility and reseat the drives. Also, the drive array diagnostic errors out and tells me it cannot read the RIS copy from the new drive. I have updated to the latest system ROMPAQ and SMART 2SL ROMPAQ and this does not affect anything. Please help!

[JohnWRuffo]

Hal:

Do you have another system you can run the system erase utility against these drives. You need to wipe them out to get rid of the corrupted RIS info.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17918.html
WARNING: DO not run this utility on a production server. It will wipe out EVERYTHING!

[Hal Overman]

I do not have another system I can run the erase utility on. Do you have any other suggestions. What exectly is this 'RIS' data the machine is looking for?

Thanks!
-Hal

[JohnWRuffo]

Hal:

This is where HP stores the hard drive configuration information. The troubleshooting documents state that if multiple errors occur, the drive may need to be replaced. (Are these drive under warranty?) This is a low level area of the drive (as I understand it) and the drive array signature is copied there.

As a drastic alternative, try this...

Disconnect the SMART-2SL controller from the drive cage and remove the 9GB current mirror set (you do not want to wipe them). Then attach the drive cage to the internal SCSI controller with the two new drives in the cage. Now wipe them with the System Erase Utility?

Re-install the original drives (in their original positons) to the cage and re-cable the cage to the SMART-2SL.

You will need to re-run the System Configuration Utiltiy from your Smart Start CD or from the diskette version. Now run the ACU.

I do not recommend what I just wrote, but it may work.