It depends on whose raid controller you are using.

If it's a newer HP/Compaq controller you can have 2 drives fail
replace the failed drives one at a time "HOT" and not miss 
a read or write.

Sam.

Quoting "jimstreit at northlans.com" <jimstreit at northlans.com>:

> With RAID 5 if 1 drive fails your OK, but if 2 fail, your dead and looking
> for
> your backup, backup, backup.
> 
> Quoting smac at visi.com:
> 
> > The word "refurbished" is a misnomer; generally a refurbished drive is a
> > "used"
> > drive. In general the drive was returned with a machine coming off a lease.
> > I'm still using both ATA and SCSI drives that were used/refurbished without
> a
> >
> > problem. Be aware that they may fail and understand that it's your risk.
> >
> > Backup, Backup, Backup, is the only thing I can say about used drives.
> >
> > I run 5 Seagate Barracuda SCSI drives in my Proliant in a RAID 5
> > configuration,
> > this limits data loss if 1 or 2 drives fail.
> >
> > Sam.
> >
> >
> > Quoting Sreekumar Kodakara <skodak at cs.umn.edu>:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I am on the look out for Ultra320 SCSI disk drives. This is to increase
> > > the storage capacity of one of our Itanium-2 servers, which we use for
> our
> > > research. I checked out at bizrate.com and found drives (73.4 GB, maxtor
> > > and seagate) starting at $130 for refurbished ones and $230 for new ones.
> > > Sisnce we have some constraints on purchases > $200, we are thinking of
> > > getting regurbished ones. Are refurbished drives reliable? Any good/bad
> > > experiences? Any good place to get such drives?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Sreekumar
> > >
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> 
> 
> 
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