# Setting a drive state to defunct

You can use this action only on a physical drive that is part of an array. If a physical drive is part of an array, you must change the drive state to defunct before removing the drive from the server or enclosure. Doing so eliminates the risk of losing data. After you replace the physical drive, you can rebuild the affected array.

This action is useful in situations such as the following:

- You want to replace a physical drive that is marked with a PFA.
- You want to replace a physical drive that is unwarranted.
- You have an array built with one or more physical drives that are not the same size. You can replace the smaller physical drives in the array with larger physical drives so that the array no longer has unusable capacity and an inefficient configuration.

Attention:

  1. If you do not change an online physical drive state to defunct before removing the drive from the server or enclosure, you risk losing data or damaging the physical drive.

  2. You cannot use this action on a physical drive undergoing a rebuild operation.
  3. (For non-RAID level-x0 logical drives) If you choose to use this action and a logical drive is:
     - In a critical state, the logical drive state will change to offline.
     - RAID level-0 and in an Okay state, the logical drive will change to offline.
     - Not RAID level-0 and in an Okay state, the logical drive state will change to critical.
  4. (For RAID level-x0 logical drives) If you choose to use this action and a logical drive is in a critical state, the logical drive state might change to offline.

1. In the tree, click (physical drive) or (physical drive).
2. Right-click Set drive state to defunct. A confirmation window opens to warn that this action might corrupt data.
   Note: If the logical drive that contains this physical drive is already offline, the ServeRAID Manager does not display this warning because the data is already corrupt. Continue to step 4.
3. Click Yes. The ServeRAID Manager sets the drive status to defunct.
4. Replace the selected physical drive. If the logical drive is not offline, a rebuild automatically occurs.

## More information

- Replacing physical drives in an array
- Understanding when RAID level-x0 logical drives change state

Glossary | Contents

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