Hard drive LED light flashing red

[trueCharlie]

What does it mean when one of the RAID drives LED is flashing red on hard drive icon with an "X"?

[cnb]

It has a problem and more than likely has failed unless you're accessing it with some RAID configuration utility like ACU or ORCA.

Might need to replace the drive. Look at the logs and go from there.

hth,

[trueCharlie]

Are you referring to Windows Event logs? If so, I don't see any mention of it in system log.

[Matti_Kurkela]

Do you have the RAID monitoring drivers installed for your OS? If not, the red LED may be the only indication that one disk of your RAID set is faulty.

If necessary, install a RAID configuration utility for your OS and use it to view the RAID configuration. It should immediately report any failed disks.

MK

[trueCharlie]

So if I install the RAID drivers or utility, I should be able to view it inside of Windows, correct?

[trueCharlie]

Okay, I just looked and this is what I have:

HP System Tools:
HP Array Configuration Utility
HP Array Configuration Utility CLI
HP Array Diagnostic Utility
HP Insight Diagnostics Online Edition for Windows
HP ProLiant Integrated Management Log Viewer

Do I have what you were asking me before? If so, which of the options above I should try?

[cnb]

Yes, you have what you need. First run the Array Diagnostic Utility (ADU)and check the file for device errors. You can also attach the file here and someone can look at it for you.

hth,

[trueCharlie]

Okay, I found the problem. The logs says so with this line:

POST Error: 1720-S.M.A.R.T. Hard Drive Detects Imminent Failure

So, my next step is, replacing the hard drive. How do I view or verify which drive is primary and secondary?

[Matti_Kurkela]

You've avoided telling us your hardware model so far, but by now I'd really like to know it instead of just guessing and trying to cover all the bases.

The terms "primary" and "secondary" are relevant only with old-style IDE/PATA disks. With SCSI, the SCSI IDs are used instead: a SCSI ID is a number between 0 and 15. With SAS and SATA disks, there is no such parameter at all.

If the disk is externally visible and has red LEDs on it, the disk seems to be in a hot-swap enclosure.

In a Proliant hot-swap system, the disk backplane (where the disks plug in to) usually handles all the necessary settings: on the hardware side, there is no need to fiddle with any jumpers or other settings.

Start the RAID configuration utility (either GUI or command-line version, your preference) and use it to verify your RAID configuration.

If your RAID type is RAID 0, take a backup *immediately* and prepare for a full restore after a disk swap: RAID 0 is all about performance, and provides no fault tolerance at all.

If the RAID configuration is RAID 1, RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 and there are no other failing/missing disks, just pull out the failing disk and plug in a new one. If the RAID controller is on default settings, it will automatically start a rebuild when it detects that a bad disk has been replaced with a good one.

MK

[trueCharlie]

Thanks for the support. The hardware as follows:

HP Proliant ML370 G4 with two SCSI swappable 146GB 10K RPM hard drive set as RAID 1.

[trueCharlie]

Okay, the red "X" icon on the drive is now fully lit (not flashing) on the new drive I just got. Any idea why? Could it be that because the drive is 146GB instead of 146.8GB?

[trueCharlie]

Here is the Array Diagnostic Utility report.