[plug] Booting with root RAID1 with a missing disk?

[Daniel Pearson (Flashware Solutions)]

Andrew Furey wrote:
> On 9/10/06, Matt Kemner <zombie at penguincare.com.au> wrote:
>> Have you tried connecting "hdc" as "hda" (ie plug it into the primary 
>> IDE
>> controller) and booting from that?  md will complain that "this disk was
>> previously hdc" but should continue booting from it.
>
> Ah, of course, presumably since from memory RAID1 treats the first
> disk as the master and syncs the others from it. Now it works
> better...
>
> Now I just have to reproduce the problem with some official tools,
> like WD's own diagnostics programs. No luck so far, with alternating
> between extended test and "write zeros"... I suspect it's not really
> stressing the disk enough :(
>
> Andrew
>

If memory serves me right, people have suggested plugging it into the 
box and cat /dev/urandom > /dev/hdX to do the job..

Cheers; Dan