Raid- Understanding "Hot Spare" and Windows reinstall - Final Steps

Question

Hello all,
If you follow couple of my other recent threads here you will see I have a warning of a failing drive in my 4 tb raid (4 x 1TB raid set.)
Also for an unrelated reason I am also needing to reinstall Windows 7.  (and of course my Adobe Master collection CS5)
I ordered a 5th drive to serve as "Hot Spare" and it will be arriving sometime today from Amazon.
I want to make sure I do the above "final steps" properly, in the correct order.
I am basing my "final steps" based on Harm's advice on another thread:
>>>
You can never be too safe with data, but if you follow the hot-spare,  extend raid set and rebuild sequence, it is not necessary. Your data  will be reconsructed automatically. That is the reason you use a  raid3/5.
Your log file is a definite show of a serious  disk problem. Replace it, create a hot-spare, extend your raid set and  rebuild (it should be done automatically) and you are ready to roll
>>>>
(As a precaution I have done a backup of my raid, to an external drive)
So once my new hard drive arrives today from Amazon, I will, in the following order:
1)  Replace failing hard drive.  (Do I need to power down the computer to remove the failing hard drive and replace it with the hot spare?  Or can I leave the computer powered on so that the raid software can continue its CONSISTANCY CHECK while II do all of the steps to rebuild the raid  --- see note at bottom of this post...)
2)  Create hot-spare
3)  Use the Raid controller software (Areca) to EXTEND HOT SPARE
4)  Rebuild raid (it should be done automatically)
THEN, after I confirm that the raid is working okay, I will
5)  Reinstall Windows 7.
THe below step is what I am not entirely clear on:
6)  I assume since the raid has already been rebuilt {before I did the windows 7 reinstall) I can do a very straightforward "reconnect" to the already working raid.  In other words, I would reinstall the Areca raid software (using the Areca cd) and identify the raid and windows 7 will recognize the 4 tb raid as my raid drive.
I am tracking the delivery of my new hard drive and it is at least 5 or 6 hours away from arriving from Amazon.
****  CONSISTANCY NOTE: I the meantime I am having the Areca web based controller software do a CONSISTANCY check of the raid.
It is half way through the check and has found 144 errors so far.   The consistancy check is rather vague about what it is doing.  But can I assume that it is finding the errors and will automatically fix them.
Or do I have to do something to fix the errors once the consistancy check is finished (This is one reason why I would like to avoid powering down during the rebuilding of the raid.)  Or will creating the hot spare, etc interrupt the consistancy check, meaning I must finish the consistancy check completley before rebuilding the raid.
Or should I abort the consistancy check and do that after I reinstall windows.  (If possible I would like to do that so I can get on with the editing of my current project!!)
WHEW!
Rowby
Message was edited by: rowby

Answer 1

WEB BROWSER-BASED CONFIGURATION
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6.6.5 Check Volume Set
To check a volume set from a RAID set:
(1). Click on the “Check Volume Set” link.
(2). Click on the volume set from the list that you wish to check.
Tick on “Confirm The Operation” and click on the “Submit” button.
Use this option to verify the correctness of the redundant data in
a volume set. For example, in a system with dedicated parity, volume
set check means computing the parity of the data disk drives
and comparing the results to the contents of the dedicated parity
disk drive. The checking percentage can also be viewed by clicking
on “RAID Set Hierarchy” in the main menu.
Directly from the Areca 1600 series Manual. I would let that finish.
Eric
ADK