Hi, I'm trying to set up a raid5 array using 8 ide drives ( /dev/hd[e-l] ) but I'm having a hard time. I'm using slackware 10, kernel 2.4.26 and madm 1.8.1 (downloading 2.4.28 overnight now) The problem is mdadm creates the array with 7 of 8 drives up and running and the last as a spare and does not start recovering with the spare. And it will not let me remove it and re-add it. Below follows a script output of the whole thing (less repartitioning the drives and zero'ing any remaining superblocks) Any help will be greatly appreciated. -thanks root@filebear:~# mdadm -C /dev/md0 -l5 -n8 -c512 /dev/hd[e-l]1 VERS = 9000 mdadm: array /dev/md0 started. root@filebear:~# cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid5] read_ahead 1024 sectors md0 : active raid5 hdl1[8] hdk1[6] hdj1[5] hdi1[4] hdh1[3] hdg1[2] hdf1[1] hde1[0] 1094017792 blocks level 5, 512k chunk, algorithm 2 [8/7] [UUUUUUU_] unused devices: <none> root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/hdl1 mdadm: set /dev/hdl1 faulty in /dev/md0 root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/hdl mdadm: hot removed /dev/hdl1 root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/hdl1 mdadm: hot add failed for /dev/hdl1: No space left on device root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -f /dev/hde1 mdadm: set /dev/hde1 faulty in /dev/md0 root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/hde1 mdadm: hot removed /dev/hde1 root@filebear:~# mdadm /dev/md0 -a /dev/hde1 mdadm: hot add failed for /dev/hde1: No space left on device - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html