I am new to the forum but found it researching an error message on my Dell XPS Dimension. The computer had been on but while no one was watching attempted to reboot. I found the machine with a blinking message at the bios start-up window. A description of Array 1 was blinking and it indicated that it was offline. There was a message telling me that there was a problem with Array 1.

Upon another reboot - the screen indicated that I should contact tech support and tell them the error was at checkpoint PnP5. Upon calling tech support, they took me into the RAID array management and it only showed one of my two harddrives. The system was set up as one array so I have no back-up. Tech support said the harddrive - since it was missing from the array - had gone bad and that I would need to purchase a new one and a support call to replace it. I am not very savy on the whole RAID thing. One of the old posts indicated some other possibilities and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions before I purchase a new harddrive and loose my information.

Heya and welcome to PCHF,

RAID arrays are when 2 or more hardrives are run together in different configuration, they can be mirrored (where both drives get the same information), stripped (where both drives get different pieces of information), and so on. RAID is really only effective for heavy data usage of thousands of read/write operations a minut, mainly it's meant for servers or workstations that are accessed 24/7.

I would buy a new HD, try to salvage as much data as you can from the other drive, and then reconfigure the remaining drive as a solitary/standard HD and ditch a RAID setup altogether. Unless you use it for more then just everyday tasks/gaming/office work and need it in an extremely intensive server environment (btw.. even high bandwidth high performance gaming servers and even most web servers don't even use RAID arrays..)