Expert: Chris Schuh - 1/16/2008

Question
QUESTION: Good morning-
I have a nt4.0 server with hot swap scsi drives.  drive 1 quit and i reestablished mirror.  It lasted for 2 days and quit again.  Can i scan disk and repair bad areas or some other process?  I have another disk that i can put in place that i got on ebay.  Should i do anything to that before re-establishing mirror?  Can I buy a new scsi drive that is not same mfg and install that or is there some other technology that i can use to have 2 disks running.  PS, i have a tape drive that i backup every day.

Sorry for all of the questions at once but they are all related.

Thank you for your time
Tim

ANSWER: Hi Tim,

It really depends on what is causing the failure. If the disks are failing like that, then I would want to know what the root cause is before throwing in more disks and running the same risk.

You'd need to see if the new drives you buy are compatible with your system and you may be looking at having to rebuild the server completely from scratch if you go with a different manufacturer.

Cheers,

Chris

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the response.  How can I find the root cause.  This happened approx 2 years ago and it was the cables.  I checked them and they seem fine.  

Thanks again.

Answer
Hi Tim,

Given the time frame, I doubt that you could figure out the root cause at this point. I'd start with the log files and seeing what error codes came up prior to the disks failing, but that information may be lost due to how much time has already elapsed.

How did you know it was the cables last time and how do you know they are fine now?

Cheers,

Chris