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RAR / Whatever it is saying now / HP 1779: replacement drive(s) detected

1779-Slot X Drive Array · F1 · F2 · Logical drive(s) disabled due to possible data loss · P410 · P420 · P440 · P816i-a

HP 1779: replacement drive(s) detected. 'Select F2 to accept data loss and to re-enable logical drive(s).' HPE's own words, and the reason to press neither key.

At POST, an HPE Smart Array that finds drives it does not expect stops with 1779-Slot X Drive Array – Replacement drive(s) detected OR previously failed drive(s) now appear to be operational, followed by Logical drive(s) disabled due to possible data loss, and two choices: F1 to continue with the logical drives disabled, F2 to accept data loss and to re-enable them. After about fourteen seconds it takes F1 by itself. The message means the controller has seen a change it cannot reconcile: a drive that failed and is now answering, a replacement in a slot whose old drive is also somewhere, a set that was moved, or a controller that is new. F2 re-enables the logical drive on whatever the controller now believes the members to be, which is why HPE describes it as accepting data loss; F1 leaves the drives disabled and untouched. Neither is the right key until the members have been imaged and the bench knows which drives are current. A set of two to four members is £500 + VAT upwards after the free look, fixed in writing, 5–10 days at the bench.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Press neither key on purpose. Let the prompt time out to F1, which leaves the logical drives disabled and writes nothing. Do not press F2 until every member has been imaged and the current members are known. Photograph the message with the bay numbers it lists, power down, and label the slots.

What the controller has seen, and what each key does.

A Smart Array keeps its configuration in a RAID Information Sector on every member, and at POST it checks that the drives in the bays match the configuration it last saved. 1779 is the message for a mismatch it can describe but not resolve: a bay holds a drive the controller last marked failed and that drive is now answering; a bay holds a drive the controller has never seen, in a slot whose previous drive was part of a logical drive; a set has been moved between servers or controllers; or a previously failed drive was pulled, reseated and has come back. The controller does not know whether the drive that reappeared holds current data, stale data, or nothing useful, so it disables the logical drives that touch it and asks.

F1 continues with the logical drives disabled. The operating system will not see them, nothing is written, and the state on the drives is exactly what it was. F2 accepts the drives as they are and re-enables the logical drives on them. If the drive that reappeared is stale, the logical drive comes up with weeks-old stripes mixed into current ones and the file system writes on top; if the drive that reappeared cannot actually read its sectors, the logical drive comes up with read errors under the file system; if the replacement is blank, the logical drive comes up degraded and the controller begins a rebuild that reads every sector of the survivors. HPE's own wording, accept data loss, is not a formality.

The bench's version is to image every member, read the RIS metadata from the images, and decide from the event counts which drives are current and which is the one that reappeared stale. The set is assembled in software from the current members with the stale one used only to fill what a survivor cannot read, and nothing is pressed on the controller until there is a copy.

What it says, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
1779 after a failed drive was reseatedThe controller saw it fail; it now answersDo not press F2; the drive may be stale or unreadable
1779 after a replacement was fittedA new drive in a slot that belonged to a logical driveF2 would start a rebuild; image the survivors first
1779 after drives were moved to another serverThe configuration is on the drives; the controller is newUsually safe after imaging; the RIS says the layout
1779 then 1785 or 1789Not configured, or drives not respondingSee the 1785 page; cabling and firmware
F2 already pressed; volume corruptStale stripes assembled as currentStop writing; image everything
F2 pressed; rebuild runningSurvivors being read end to endPower down if any survivor is weak

From the parcel arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every member the day it is opened, matched to the slot you wrote on it. Each member goes on the imager its interface needs, never on a controller, and its metadata is read before a sector is: the level, the order, the stripe size, the event counts that say which member is current and which dropped out first. An engineer settles what has happened to the set and how much of it can honestly be read back. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no imports, no initialise
02

Every member imaged, including the one that failed first

Every drive in the set is imaged sector by sector, weak areas last, on hardware that controls every retry, with a map of what could not be read kept for each. Members with failed heads go to the clean bench first; that is the drive site's work and the same bench does it. The drive that dropped out first is imaged too, because it still holds every stripe written before it dropped, and a rebuild that stalled part-way never reached them.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastThe first-dropped member included
03

The geometry, from the metadata or from the parity

A Smart Array set is read from its RIS metadata on the images, which records the logical drive, the members and their sequence, so that the drive the 1779 prompt was about can be identified as current, stale or blank before anything is assembled. The set is then built in software from the current members, proved by parity, and the stale member's image used only where a survivor cannot read.

Metadata first, parity secondOrder, stripe, rotation, offset
04

Assembled in software, and repaired on the virtual volume

The set is put together from the images in software, with nothing written to any of them: the current members in, the stale member used only to fill holes a survivor could not give. The file system is checked and repaired on a copy of the virtual volume, VMFS and CSV volumes opened and the virtual machines' disks extracted, databases repaired where they need it. The originals are not touched again.

Nothing written to the imagesVirtual machines and databases opened
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job5–10 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Photograph the prompt. It names the port, box and bays it is unsure about, and that is the case.
  • Let it time out. The default is F1, and F1 writes nothing.
  • Export an SSA diagnostic report if the server will boot with the logical drives disabled; it records the controller's own view of every member.
  • If F2 was pressed, stop now. What the file system has written since is the damage; what it has not is intact.

Tonight, in this order: stop writes and do not reboot repeatedly; press nothing the controller offers (F2, Import, Clear, Force online, Rebuild); photograph the screen and label the slots; export the log without changing state (PERC TTYLOG or storcli show all, an SSA diagnostic report, mdadm --examine on every member, zpool import with no flags, Get-VirtualDisk); power down and send every member, plus the controller if it was replaced or holds a key. The first-response page has the reasons.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RAR-2026-0616JOB LOGGED ✓

A DL380 Gen8 with a P420i that stopped at 1779 after a drive that had failed in April was reseated by a cleaner's cable brush in July, and an engineer who pressed F2 to get the server up

The logical drive came up with April's data in one member's stripes and the file server ran for a day before the corruption was noticed. All six drives came in. The RIS metadata on the images identified the reseated drive as three months stale; the five current members were assembled in software and the stale drive's image used only for stripes a survivor could not read. The NTFS volume was repaired on the virtual volume from its journal, and the day's damage was limited to files written after F2.

99.9% of the volume recovered8 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Photograph the 1779 prompt with the bay numbers
  • Let it time out to F1
  • Power down and label the slots
  • Send every member, and say which drive was reseated or replaced, and when

What sets us back

  • Pressing F2
  • Reseating drives to see whether the message clears
  • Fitting a replacement and letting the rebuild run
  • Running chkdsk on a logical drive re-enabled with F2

Questions answered before you commit.

What does HP error 1779 mean?

That the Smart Array has found a drive it does not expect: one that failed and now answers, a replacement in a slot that belonged to a logical drive, or a set moved from elsewhere. It disables the logical drives that touch that drive and asks whether to accept data loss and re-enable them.

Should I press F1 or F2?

Neither on purpose. Let it time out to F1, which leaves the logical drives disabled and writes nothing. Press F2 only after every member has been imaged and the current members are known.

I pressed F2 and the data is corrupt. Is it gone?

Not usually. The stale member's stripes were assembled as current; the current members still hold the right data, and the file system's journal limits the damage to what was written since. Stop now and send the set.

What does it cost?

£500 + VAT upwards for a set of two to four members after the free look, fixed in writing; larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

How long does it take?

5–10 days at the bench.

Where this usually leads.

HP 1785, 1789, 1793 and 1831 →HPE Smart Array →Virtual disk failed or offline →RAID 5 →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. Until that list reaches you, leave the server off and the drives in their slots.

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