Hardware: HP ProLiant N40L, 6 GB RAM, 1 x 250 GB boot, 3 x 3 TB storage pool configured as Parity.
Software: Windows Server Essentials 2012 RTM (eval key, 170 days left). Storage Pool configured as one 5.4 TB storage space.
This has happened twice in the last week. I looked at the Launchpad and noticed an alert: "One or more drives is not healthy". I ran the Advanced Manage Storage Spaces tool and saw that one of the drives showed up as "disconnected". There was nothing in the Event Log under Errors that pointed to a deteriorating drive problem.
I powered down the server, yanked the drive, reseated it, and started the server. Problem cleared itself and the Storage Space went into "Repairing" mode.
I should note that previously the same hardware slot was hosting a different drive and had no issues. Also, I did not try rebooting WITHOUT reseating the drive although I realize that I should have.
So now I'm trying to narrow down the issue. Since the physical drive in question is brand new, it seems possible that I have a bad drive. But the lack of device errors in the Event Log puzzles me.
Question: If a drive in a storage pool was failing, where would be a good place to look for the error? Also, are there other diagnostic steps that I could take?
I'm tempted to boot from USB with SpinRite and just test the 3 TB drive, but I'm looking for other suggestions.