Looked into this more today and found that for some reason my array is not being detected and assembled correctly after a reboot. I've got a RAID 5 with 4 disks: /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 Here's what I've accomplished so far: 1) I removed /dev/sde1 using "sudo mdadm /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sde1 --remove /dev/sde1" 2) I zeroed it's superblock using "sudo mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sde1" 3) I zeroed the entire disk with "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sde bs=1M" 4) I created a new msdos partition table and added 1 partition using the full size of the disk with gparted. 5) I reformatted the partition with "sudo mkfs.xfs -f -b size=4096 -d sunit=128,swidth=384 -L mythtv /dev/sde" 6) Finally, I added the disk back into the raid array using "sudo mdadm /dev/md0 --add /dev/sde1" After rebuilding the array on all 4 disks, everything was working. I could unmount the partition, stop /dev/md0, and then restart it by doing: sudo umount /media/terabyte sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md0 sudo mdadm --assemble --scan This worked fine before a reboot. After rebooting just now, it failed to bring the array up, giving the familiar error: "the disk for/mnt/md0 is not ready yet or not present. Continue to wait; or Press S to skip mount or M for manual recovery." I logged in and tried to assemble the array, but got this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --assemble --scan -v mdadm: looking for devices for further assembly mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdd1: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdd: Device or resource busy mdadm: no recogniseable superblock on /dev/sde mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdc1: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdc: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdb1: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sdb: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sda6: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sda5: Device or resource busy mdadm: no recogniseable superblock on /dev/sda2 mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sda1: Device or resource busy mdadm: cannot open device /dev/sda: Device or resource busy mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically trinitronx@saturn:~$ cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] md0 : inactive sdb1[0](S) sdc1[1](S) sdd1[2](S) 2197715712 blocks unused devices: trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0 mdadm: md device /dev/md0 does not appear to be active. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, examining the superblocks on the rest of the disks shows that /dev/sde1 is missing!!! Trying to examine /dev/sde1 says that the device does not exist!! I've repeated this multiple times and cannot figure out what it's problem is. Here is the superblock information from /dev/sde1 and the first 3 disks: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --examine /dev/sde1 mdadm: cannot open /dev/sde1: No such file or directory trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --examine /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 7a0e5ba8:669595fc:852484a6:e390a598 (local to host saturn) Creation Time : Fri Jan 9 03:40:39 2009 Raid Level : raid5 Used Dev Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB) Array Size : 2197715712 (2095.91 GiB 2250.46 GB) Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Sun May 16 22:13:13 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : b38b3afe - correct Events : 122066 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1 0 0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1 1 1 8 33 1 active sync /dev/sdc1 2 2 8 49 2 active sync /dev/sdd1 3 3 8 65 3 active sync trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --examine /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 7a0e5ba8:669595fc:852484a6:e390a598 (local to host saturn) Creation Time : Fri Jan 9 03:40:39 2009 Raid Level : raid5 Used Dev Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB) Array Size : 2197715712 (2095.91 GiB 2250.46 GB) Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Sun May 16 22:13:13 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : b38b3b10 - correct Events : 122066 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 1 8 33 1 active sync /dev/sdc1 0 0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1 1 1 8 33 1 active sync /dev/sdc1 2 2 8 49 2 active sync /dev/sdd1 3 3 8 65 3 active sync trinitronx@saturn:~$ sudo mdadm --examine /dev/sdd1 /dev/sdd1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 00.90.00 UUID : 7a0e5ba8:669595fc:852484a6:e390a598 (local to host saturn) Creation Time : Fri Jan 9 03:40:39 2009 Raid Level : raid5 Used Dev Size : 732571904 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB) Array Size : 2197715712 (2095.91 GiB 2250.46 GB) Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 0 Update Time : Sun May 16 22:13:13 2010 State : clean Active Devices : 4 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 0 Checksum : b38b3b22 - correct Events : 122066 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Number Major Minor RaidDevice State this 2 8 49 2 active sync /dev/sdd1 0 0 8 17 0 active sync /dev/sdb1 1 1 8 33 1 active sync /dev/sdc1 2 2 8 49 2 active sync /dev/sdd1 3 3 8 65 3 active sync ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attached is a kernel messages log which shows the array up and running before the reboot, then after the reboot no array is started. I also examined the partition tables on the disks, and it seems to be missing for /dev/sde ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- trinitronx@saturn:/media$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sde Disk /dev/sde: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/sde doesn't contain a valid partition table ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arg!!! This is the 4th time I've had to repartition this disk after a reboot. Up until the reboot, everything is fine, but something messes up the partition table of /dev/sde after a reboot.