We are a very small business and run only one server that has run trouble free for nearly two years when I bought it from a medium-sized company that was upgrading. It ran perfectly for them as well. It is a Dell 2900, Server 2008 with latest updates (until the failure), latest BIOS firmware, twin 3.0 Ghz chips, 20 GB RAM, Perc 5i with 6 x 146 GB drives. Pretty sure it was configured with Drive 0 through 4 in RAID 5 and Drive 5 as a hot swap. I haven't been able to locate my notes on the configuration. :-( I have my key data backed up but it is on an encrypted Internet service so restoring it will take a long time. I also have some other files on the machine that aren't crucial but I'd like to get back if I can.
Original symptom was the network lost connectivity without warning and gave a CPU failure fault on the LED. Machine would no longer POST. I determined that everything was good except the Perc 5i card. When it was removed the machine would POST. Replaced the card with a known good one and the machine booted and it did fine until it threw a foreign RAID configuration error in the BIOS. I assume this isn't unexpected since the new card would not have any or the same configuration. Logged into the Perc card and it doesn't see the drives. At the same time, the front and drive tray LEDs showed that Drive 4 was faulting. This hasn't shown up before. Tried to re-seat the drive, no change.
Is the situation with a failed Perc card mean there is no way to rebuild the array?
Will the bad drive be an issue if I can, in fact, rebuild the array? What should I do about it?
What procedure should I follow to get back up and running?
Thanks to everyone who reads this and your ideas.