| 摘要 |
A RAID disk array is operated in a hardware-address-independent manner, wherein a harware address (T=0 thru T=9 in Fig. 2) for each disk in the array is set and changed mechanically (by 11 in Fig. 2) without adversely affecting the operation of the array. This method of operating the array is performed by a control program (13A in Fig. 2) which writes on a magnetic media in each disk (e.g. - 10 in Fig. 2) in the array, the number of the column in the array (e.g. Col. 0) which that disk stores and a unique identifier(e.g. - ID0, ID1, ... ID4) which identifies all of the disks in the array. Subsequently, if the harware address of one or more disks in the array is changed, the control program (13a in Fig. 2) determines which disk hardware addresses (e.g. - T=4) correspond to each column (e.g. - Col. 0) in the array by a) selecting a potential hardware address for any one disk in the array, b) attempting to read the unique identifier and column number from that one disk using the selected hardware address, c) repeating the selecting and attempting steps multiple times, and d) correlating which selected hardware addresses result in an actual reading of a column number with the unique identifier.
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