>> Can you use the original disk to assemble the array and keep the copy as >> backup? Then you can rebuild the array and later replace this disk with >> another >> one if you want. > > That makes sense. However, using the original physical drive, I get the > same result. This is caused by attaching devices over usb. Although the correct serial can be seen with smartctl, the device also seems to have another serial number applied to it used by other tools including mdadm. I fixed this by attaching directly to internal SATA -- mdadm sees the right serial and assembled everything correctly and I am in the process of retrieving the needed data. Thank you for your help. The world is a better place for people like you who take time to help others.
