A technician replaced a failed hard drive in a RAID 5 array

A technician replaced a failed hard drive in a raid 5 array - CompTIA Server+ SK0-005

Question

A technician replaced a failed hard drive in a RAID 5 array. What should be done next?

Answers

Format the new drive
Restart the server
Initialize a full system backup
correct

Rebuild the RAID array

Explanation

Correct Answer: D. Rebuild the RAID array

After replacing a failed hard drive in a RAID 5 array, the next critical step is to rebuild the RAID array. This process reconstructs the data that was stored on the failed drive using parity information from the remaining disks.

RAID 5 uses block-level striping with distributed parity, so it can tolerate one disk failure. Rebuilding restores redundancy and ensures data integrity, preventing data loss if another drive fails.

Why the Other Options are Incorrect:

A. Format the new drive: Formatting is not required and may even interfere with the RAID controller’s ability to manage the rebuild. The RAID controller typically handles the new disk initialization as part of the rebuild process.
B. Restart the server: A server restart is not necessary after replacing the drive. In fact, restarting can interrupt the rebuild process or delay recovery. Most modern RAID systems support hot-swapping and automatically detect the new drive.
C. Initialize a full system backup: Although regular backups are important, initializing a full backup immediately after inserting a new disk is not the required next step. The priority is to restore the RAID’s fault tolerance by rebuilding it.

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