220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is configuring a RAID 5 array with…

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  The drives are not compatible with RAID 5.

  Why it's wrong here

  Modern SATA drives are almost universally compatible with RAID 5 configurations, as the RAID controller handles the parity calculations and data striping, not the individual drives themselves. Drive compatibility issues are exceedingly rare unless dealing with highly specialized or extremely old hardware, and even then, the controller would typically report an incompatibility error rather than simply not presenting the array. Therefore, this is an improbable cause for an unconfigured RAID 5 array.

• ✓

  The RAID array has not been initialized.

  Why this is correct

  After physically installing the drives and ensuring they are detected by the RAID controller, the logical RAID 5 array must be explicitly created and initialized within the controller's BIOS utility or management software. This critical step involves defining the RAID level, selecting the member drives, and often performing an initial synchronization or parity calculation across the disks. Until this initialization process is complete, the operating system will not recognize a single logical volume, even if all physical drives are functioning correctly.

• ✗

  The SATA cables are faulty.

  Why it's wrong here

  Faulty SATA data cables would typically prevent the individual hard drives from being detected by the RAID controller at all, or cause intermittent connection issues leading to drive dropouts. If the drives are detected individually within the controller's utility but the array itself is not visible, the cables are likely functioning correctly. A faulty cable would disrupt the physical layer, preventing communication rather than just array formation.

• ✗

  The power supply is insufficient.

  Why it's wrong here

  An insufficient power supply would manifest as drives failing to spin up, exhibiting erratic behavior, or not being detected by the system at all due to a lack of operational power. While it could prevent a RAID array from forming, the primary symptom would be the absence of individual drive detection or consistent drive failures, rather than merely an uninitialized array where all drives are otherwise recognized. The issue would be at the physical power delivery level, not the logical configuration.