Unplugged all disks of a RAID 5 in bios, now are in FAIL mode

[BrownB77]

Hello, I have an old server with PERC 4/SC RAID controller. I have a RAID 5 volume built on 3 hot plug disks. In the PERC Bios Configuration Utility I was going to clear a new physical disk, but to be shure to don't clear the working 3 disks of the RAID, I just unplugged them all. Then I plugged them all again, and reboot the server. I entered again in the Bios Configuration Utility but the disks now are in FAIL state: considering that no writing was performed on any of those disks, is it possible to go back to working state without loosing the data on the disks?

 

[James Mason]

Did you put them back in to the exact same physical slots they were in?
You may only have to tell it to remake the raid array.

 

[BrownB77]

Did you put them back in to the exact same physical slots they were in?
You may only have to tell it to remake the raid array.

Yes I actually just unplugged them without extracting them completely.

 

[bignastyid]

Try forcing the drives online.

 

[ss202sl]

try this.
unplug the disks again go back into the bios(raid configuration), and clear the raid configuration.
Then shut down. plug the disks back in and power back up and go back into the raid configuration.
It should read the configuration on the disks and ask if you want to accept the new configuration.

 

[BrownB77]

try this.
unplug the disks again go back into the bios(raid configuration), and clear the raid configuration.
Then shut down. plug the disks back in and power back up and go back into the raid configuration.
It should read the configuration on the disks and ask if you want to accept the new configuration.

That worked correctly thank you!

To be precise, I followed the section "Drive Roaming" in the "PERC 4 BIOS Configuration Utility manual". Here the details:
- with all disks plugged in (still in FAIL mode), at boot open the BIOS Configuration utility;
- Select Configure—> View/Add Configuration.
- Select Disk when asked to use Disk or NVRAM: now the disks are no more in FAIL mode.
- Press <Esc> to display the prompt to save the configuration.
- Select Save.
- Press <Esc> to exit the BIOS Configuration Utility.