Greetings,

I have a single Win2003R1 Server using Active Directory with a ServeRaid6m controller and a Dell Powervault 220S drive array.  It was originally installed with 4 18Gb drives in the 0-3 slots creating 1 RAID5 array with 3 logical drives and a hot spare.  

I desire to add 3 more 18Gb drives in the 4-6 slots and create a second array still with 1 hot spare.  

The Dell Powervault 220S is NOT a hot-swap device. I have tried a half-dozen times to shut down my server, shutdown the powervault, add one, two or three of the additional 18Gb drives and restart the powervault, then server.  On each attempt, I receive an error message that the drive array is defunct and it takes 8 hours to 'rebuild' the array by putting 2 of the defunct drives back online ready.  I have scoured the (sparce) documentation for the drive array and for the ServeRAID 6m controller.  Each appear to indicate that I need only add the drives into the unit and select 'Add drive' after restarting.  Obviously I am missing something, but I cannot repeatedly crash the drive array and spend 8 hours rebuilding it.  

EXPERIENCE - Is there some step that I am missing? It does not make sense that I cannot add an additional drive(s) after creating the original configuration without recreating everything and then restoring from backup.

All firmware and software are at latest versions.