220-1201 Practice Test 19 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician is building a workstation for video editing and needs to install two M.2 NVMe SSDs. The motherboard has one M.2 slot that supports both SATA and NVMe, and another that supports only SATA. When the technician installs both drives, only the NVMe drive is detected. What is the most likely reason?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The second M.2 slot only supports SATA SSDs, not NVMe.. M.2 slots can have different interface support. If one slot only supports SATA, an NVMe SSD will not be recognized. This tests knowledge of M.2 slot compatibility.

Answer

The NVMe drive is not properly seated.

Answer

The BIOS needs to be updated.

Answer

The SATA SSD is defective.

Question 2

A small business server with a RAID 10 array of four 2 TB hard drives experiences a drive failure. The technician replaces the failed drive with an identical model. After rebuilding, the array reports as healthy, but the total capacity is now 2 TB instead of the expected 4 TB. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The array was accidentally rebuilt as a RAID 1 mirror instead of RAID 10.. RAID 10 combines mirroring and striping. If the replacement drive is not properly sized or the array is misconfigured, capacity can be incorrect. However, the most common cause is using a drive with different geometry or the array being rebuilt as a single mirror instead of striped mirrors. This question tests understanding of RAID 10 capacity calculation.

Answer

The replacement drive has a different sector size.

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The new drive is 1 TB instead of 2 TB.

Answer

The array is using a non-standard stripe size.

Question 3

A technician is configuring a new NAS with four 10 TB hard drives. The customer wants maximum usable capacity with fault tolerance for one drive failure. The technician sets up RAID 5, but after initialization, the usable capacity is only 10 TB instead of the expected 30 TB. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The array was accidentally configured as RAID 1 (mirroring) across two drives.. RAID 5 with four drives of equal size should yield (n-1) * capacity = 30 TB. A 10 TB result suggests only two drives are being used, possibly due to a misconfiguration like RAID 1 or a stripe set of two drives. This tests RAID 5 capacity calculation and troubleshooting.

Answer

One of the drives is defective and the array is using only three drives.

Answer

The drives are not all the same size; one is 5 TB.

Answer

The RAID controller is using a different stripe size.

Question 4

A technician is called to a data center where a server with a RAID 6 array of six 8 TB drives has experienced a double drive failure. The technician replaces both failed drives. After the rebuild, the array reports as healthy but the performance is extremely slow during normal operations. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The array is still rebuilding in the background, consuming I/O resources.. After a rebuild, the array may be performing a background consistency check or initialization that consumes I/O resources. RAID 6 rebuilds are intensive, and the controller may be verifying parity. This tests advanced RAID troubleshooting.

Answer

The new drives have a different rotational speed.

Answer

The RAID controller cache battery is dead.

Answer

The stripe size was changed during the rebuild.

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a server that uses a hardware RAID controller with a 1 GB cache. The server experiences periodic write performance drops, and the event log shows 'Cache battery low' warnings. What is the most likely impact of this condition?

Accepted Answer

The controller will disable write caching to protect data integrity.. RAID controllers use cache batteries to protect data in write cache during power loss. When the battery is low, the controller may disable write caching to prevent data loss, causing write performance to drop. This tests knowledge of RAID controller cache behavior.

Answer

The controller will switch to read-only mode.

Answer

The controller will increase the stripe size to compensate.

Answer

The controller will automatically rebuild the array.

Question 6

A server with a RAID 6 array of six 2 TB drives experiences a double drive failure. After replacing both drives, the technician starts the rebuild process, but the array status shows 'Degraded' and the rebuild fails. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

A third drive has developed bad sectors.. RAID 6 can tolerate two drive failures, but if a third drive fails or has bad sectors during rebuild, the array may fail. The most likely cause is that a third drive developed bad sectors during the rebuild, preventing successful reconstruction. This highlights the risk of rebuild stress on older drives.

Answer

The new drives are not the same capacity as the originals.

Answer

The RAID controller firmware is outdated.

Answer

The rebuild process was interrupted by a power outage.

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a server that uses a hardware RAID controller with four SSDs in RAID 10. The server randomly freezes and the event log shows 'Lost communication with drive' errors. The drives pass SMART tests. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The RAID controller firmware is corrupted.. Intermittent communication errors with drives that pass SMART tests often point to a faulty RAID controller, cable, or backplane. Since the drives themselves are healthy, the issue is likely with the controller or its connection to the drives.

Answer

The SSDs are experiencing write amplification.

Answer

The SSDs need to be defragmented.

Answer

The server's power supply is failing.

Question 8

A company's file server uses a RAID 5 array with five 4 TB hard drives. One drive fails and is replaced. During the rebuild, the server crashes and the RAID controller reports that the array is 'Failed'. What is the most likely reason for this catastrophic failure?

Accepted Answer

A second drive failed during the rebuild process.. In RAID 5, a single drive failure is survivable, but during rebuild, the remaining drives are under heavy read stress. If another drive fails or has an unrecoverable read error, the array fails. This is known as a 'double fault' during rebuild, a common risk with large-capacity drives.

Answer

The new drive was not properly formatted before installation.

Answer

The RAID controller cache battery is dead.

Answer

The rebuild was attempted while the server was under heavy load.

Question 9

A technician is configuring a RAID 5 array with three 2 TB hard drives for a small office server. After installation, the array is not recognized by the RAID controller. The drives spin up and are detected individually. What is the most likely oversight?

Accepted Answer

The RAID array has not been initialized.. RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives. The drives are detected individually, so the issue is with the RAID configuration itself. The most common oversight is failing to initialize the array in the RAID controller BIOS.

Answer

The drives are not compatible with RAID 5.

Answer

The SATA cables are faulty.

Answer

The power supply is insufficient.

Question 10

A technician is tasked with setting up a RAID 10 array using four 500 GB HDDs for a database server. After configuration, the total capacity shown is 1 TB instead of the expected 1.5 TB. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The array is configured correctly; RAID 10 provides 1 TB usable.. RAID 10 (1+0) mirrors and then stripes, so usable capacity is half of total raw capacity (4 x 500 GB = 2 TB raw, 1 TB usable). The technician likely expected RAID 5 capacity (75% usable) but configured RAID 10.

Answer

One of the drives is only 250 GB.

Answer

The array was accidentally configured as RAID 0.

Answer

The controller is using a different stripe size.

Question 11

During a routine check, a technician finds that a RAID 0 array with two SSDs is no longer bootable. The BIOS detects both SSDs individually but the array is missing from the RAID controller. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The RAID metadata has been corrupted.. RAID 0 stripes data across drives with no parity. If the array metadata is corrupted or one drive fails, the entire array becomes inaccessible. Individual detection suggests the drives are physically okay, but the RAID configuration is lost.

Answer

One of the SSDs has failed completely.

Answer

The RAID controller has failed.

Answer

The SATA cables are swapped.

Question 12

A user complains that their computer, which uses a RAID 1 mirror with two identical HDDs, is running very slowly. The OS is installed on the array. The technician checks and finds that one drive has a high number of bad sectors. What should be done to restore performance and data safety?

Accepted Answer

Replace the failing drive with a new one and rebuild the array.. In RAID 1, a failing drive causes the controller to spend time retrying reads, slowing performance. The correct fix is to replace the failing drive and let the array rebuild, restoring both performance and redundancy.

Answer

Remove the failing drive and continue with the good drive only.

Answer

Defragment both drives.

Answer

Reformat the array and reinstall the OS.

Question 13

A company's file server uses a RAID 5 array with five 2 TB HDDs. After a power outage, the server boots but the RAID array is shown as 'Failed' in the controller utility. The drives are all detected. What is the most likely cause and the best first step to recover the array with minimal data loss?

Accepted Answer

Check the RAID controller's event log and attempt to import the array.. A power outage can cause multiple drives to be marked as offline or failed due to incomplete writes, even if they are healthy. The array status 'Failed' with all drives detected suggests a metadata issue. The best first step is to check the controller's event log and attempt to import or rebuild the array without initializing it, which would destroy data.

Answer

Replace all five drives and restore from backup.

Answer

Initialize the array to clear the failed status.

Answer

Reseat all SATA cables and power connectors.

Question 14

After installing a new graphics card, a user's display shows distorted colors and random artifacts during boot. The system POSTs successfully. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The power supply unit is insufficient for the new card. Artifacts and color distortion after a new GPU install typically point to insufficient power delivery or a faulty card. Since the system POSTs, it's not a complete failure but likely a power or driver issue. The correct answer highlights that the power supply may not meet the card's requirements, causing instability.

Answer

The monitor is incompatible with the new card

Answer

The graphics card driver is outdated

Answer

The display cable is loose

Question 15

A user reports that their laptop screen flickers intermittently, but the flickering stops when they adjust the screen angle. What is the most likely hardware issue?

Accepted Answer

A loose or damaged display cable. Flickering that changes with screen angle is a classic symptom of a damaged or loose display cable (LVDS or eDP ribbon) that connects the screen to the motherboard. This is common in laptops due to hinge wear. The correct answer identifies the cable as the likely culprit.

Answer

A failing backlight LED

Answer

A defective graphics chip

Answer

Incorrect display refresh rate setting