I have an MD300 that is in need of a hot spare. I bought one matching the model that failed and came up with the problem that it is not a Dell "Firmwared" Seagate drive. I looked around my server room and concluded that I could use this drive in three other Dell servers that are not as "choosy" as the MD3000 so I decided to keep it as a cold spare on the shelf. I then went through Dell spare parts. I made it clear that I needed a drive that would be usable in the MD3000 and what was shipped from Dell was the same model Seagate drive I had on hand with the same 0003 Firmware version. (Third party $110 and Dell was $180, but Dell's did arrive more quickly.)
I noticed while checking for alternative uses for the first drive purchased that my PV600 storage server had 7 of the same model drives as the failed MD3000 drive (ST3400755SS) and had "Revision" as NS25 and I assume that is the firmware version. So it occured to me that I should be able to remove one of these PV600 drives from an intact array and slide in the 0003 firmware drive into that slot on the PV600 and let it rebuild its Virtual Disk (as the PV600 should not reject the 0003 firmware drive). I could then insert the higher level firmware Dell branded drive from the PV600 into the MD3000 and see if it is recognized as an "allowed" drive.
So that is the plan. But I have never removed a "good" drive from an existing RAID 5 array and then replaced it with a different drive. I assume that the PERC controller in the PV600 would just start using the new drive and rebuild its Virtual Disk (provided it was not as "choosy" as the MD3000). After the PV600 successfully rebuilt its array I would then add the Dell branded drive to the MD3000 to to see if it is accepted as a replacement. [If the PV600 rejects the new Seagate drive I assume I could just put the "borrowed" drive back into the PV600 and let it rebuild.] Can someone let me know if this makes sense or is there something I have not anticipated that would make this not work. [If this works I will then have the other 6 matching drives in the PV600 available for a similar swap if needed.] Sorry for the long post.