i performed mdadm -E on the devices in the array myth ~ # mdadm -E /dev/hdi1 /dev/hdi1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.02 UUID : 9ab2395c:b39cfe1c:ba195ea0:0505eb9d Creation Time : Mon Dec 26 13:41:06 2005 Raid Level : raid5 Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Mon Jul 10 21:43:11 2006 State : clean Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 4aaf93b4 - correct Events : 0.428721 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 56 1 0 active sync /dev/hdi1 0 0 56 1 0 active sync /dev/hdi1 1 1 56 65 1 active sync /dev/hdj1 2 2 57 1 2 active sync /dev/hdk1 3 3 57 65 3 active sync /dev/hdl1 myth ~ # mdadm -E /dev/hdj1 /dev/hdj1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.02 UUID : 9ab2395c:b39cfe1c:ba195ea0:0505eb9d Creation Time : Mon Dec 26 13:41:06 2005 Raid Level : raid5 Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Mon Jul 10 21:43:11 2006 State : clean Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 4aaf93f6 - correct Events : 0.428721 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 1 56 65 1 active sync /dev/hdj1 0 0 56 1 0 active sync /dev/hdi1 1 1 56 65 1 active sync /dev/hdj1 2 2 57 1 2 active sync /dev/hdk1 3 3 57 65 3 active sync /dev/hdl1 myth ~ # mdadm -E /dev/hdk1 /dev/hdk1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.02 UUID : 9ab2395c:b39cfe1c:ba195ea0:0505eb9d Creation Time : Mon Dec 26 13:41:06 2005 Raid Level : raid5 Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Mon Jul 10 21:43:11 2006 State : active Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 4aa90908 - correct Events : 0.428722 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 2 57 1 2 active sync /dev/hdk1 0 0 56 1 0 active sync /dev/hdi1 1 1 56 65 1 active sync /dev/hdj1 2 2 57 1 2 active sync /dev/hdk1 3 3 57 65 3 active sync /dev/hdl1 myth ~ # mdadm -E /dev/hdl1 /dev/hdl1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.02 UUID : 9ab2395c:b39cfe1c:ba195ea0:0505eb9d Creation Time : Mon Dec 26 13:41:06 2005 Raid Level : raid5 Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Mon Jul 10 21:43:11 2006 State : active Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : 4aa9094a - expected 4aa908c4 Events : 0.428722 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 0 0 0 spare 0 0 56 1 0 active sync /dev/hdi1 1 1 56 65 1 active sync /dev/hdj1 2 2 57 1 2 active sync /dev/hdk1 3 3 57 65 3 active sync /dev/hdl1 it does report as hdk having a bad checksum .. but the other 3 drives seem okay .. hopefully i can restore my data ... but why isn't it loading up in a 3 drive config ?? - 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