IBM RAID disks

We have a Red Hat linux server running on IBM x445 hardware. There are external disks in an IBM EXP300 disk enclosure. The system is running RAID 5. One of the four IBM disks (73.4 GB 10k FRU 06P5760) has become faulty. The system is still up and running OK because of the RAID. In that same EXP300 disk enclosure we have two other disks - exactly the same specs and FRU number - which are not used and have not been used for a while. They were connected to a system which is no longer being used and have since been disconnected from that system and are sitting in the EXP300 disk enclosure doing nothing. All of these disks are hot swappable.

What I would like to know is - can I use one of these spare disks to replace the faulty one? As they were previously used briefly on another system - if I can use them do they have to be formatted or initialised in some way before use?

Thanks
Paul

Not aware on how your RAID was set up but if it is using a hardware RAID controller card, then the controller will take the replacement drive and make it ready to replace the "defective" drive. This is a low level feature of most hardware RAID controllers.

Yes it is using a hardware RAID controller card.

The if the 2 disks are identical, no problem.
the moment you plug in the replacement drive, the raid controler will notice it and start rebuilding the info onto it.

no further action required from your part.