• Note: If your RAID array is degraded you will see something like this
cat /proc/mdstat 

Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] 
md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1] sda1[0](F)
      487104 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]
md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1] sda2[0](F)
      976142144 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]

Get information about the hard drive(s)

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Input/output error

A healthy drive will show output similar to:

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

ATA device, with non-removable media
    Model Number:       WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0                    
    Serial Number:      WD-WCC6Y2ZHZJAH
    Firmware Revision:  01.01A01
    Transport:          Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
    Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x001f) 
    Supported: 10 9 8 7 6 5 
    Likely used: 10
Configuration:
    Logical     max current
    cylinders   16383   0
    heads       16  0
    sectors/track   63  0
    --
... etc

or an alternative command

sudo lshw -class disk -class storage

... etc

  *-scsi:0
       physical id: 1
       logical name: scsi0
       capabilities: emulated
     *-disk
          description: SCSI Disk
          physical id: 0.0.0
          bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
          logical name: /dev/sda
          size: 931GiB (1TB)
          configuration: logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512
  *-scsi:1
       physical id: 2
       logical name: scsi1
       capabilities: emulated
     *-disk
          description: ATA Disk
          product: WDC WD10EZEX-00W
          vendor: Western Digital
          physical id: 0.0.0
          bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
          logical name: /dev/sdb
          version: 1A01
          serial: WD-WCC6Y2ZHZJAH
          size: 931GiB (1TB)
          capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
          configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=4096 signature=000e5fab


... etc

and another (possibly the best solution) program;

sudo smartctl -d ata -a -i /dev/sdb

... etc

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Blue
Device Model:     WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0
Serial Number:    WD-WCC6Y2ZHZJAH
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 20d232e87
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Jan 30 13:43:46 2017 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

... etc

Remove the failed disk from the RAID1 array

In this example, I have 2 disks - /dev/sda and /dev/sdb with 2 partitions on each disk /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2 - and /dev/sda has died. Here is what mdstat looks like

cat /proc/mdstat 
Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] 
md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1]
      976142144 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]

md0 : active raid1 sdb1[1]
      487104 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]

unused devices: <none>

Remove the raid devices

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sda1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --fail /dev/sda2

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sda1
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --remove /dev/sda2
shutdown -h now
  • Physically remove the broken disk and install the new one

Add the new disk to the RAID1 array

Mirror the partitioning scheme from the RAID disk to the new disk

sfdisk -d /dev/sdb | sfdisk /dev/sda

Add the new disk to the array

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sda1 
mdadm --manage /dev/md1 --add /dev/sda2 

Check the recovery status

cat /proc/mdstat 
Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] 
md1 : active raid1 sda2[2] sdb2[1]
      976142144 blocks super 1.2 [2/1] [_U]
      [>....................]  recovery =  0.3% (3282752/976142144) finish=103.7min speed=156321K/sec

md0 : active raid1 sda1[2] sdb1[1]
      487104 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

Install GRUB to the MBR of the new disk

grub-install /dev/sda

Mount a working disk in a broken RAID array