220-1201 Practice Question: During a routine check, a technician finds that a…

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

• ✗

  One of the SSDs has failed completely.

  Why it's wrong here

  If one of the SSDs had failed completely, the system's BIOS or the RAID controller would typically not even register its presence on the SATA bus. A complete drive failure means the drive is unresponsive and undetectable by the system hardware. Since the problem states that the individual drives are still detected, a complete failure of one SSD is inconsistent with the observed symptoms, as the system would report fewer detected drives.

• ✗

  The RAID controller has failed.

  Why it's wrong here

  A complete failure of the RAID controller, whether it's an integrated chipset or a dedicated expansion card, would typically prevent the system from detecting any drives connected through that controller. If the controller itself is non-functional, it cannot communicate with the drives or present them to the system BIOS. The fact that the individual drives are still detected indicates that the controller is at least partially functional, ruling out a total controller failure.

• ✓

  The RAID metadata has been corrupted.

  Why this is correct

  RAID metadata, which is stored on the drives themselves, contains critical configuration information such as the array type, stripe size, drive order, and parity data. If this metadata becomes corrupted due to a sudden power loss, a controller glitch, or a bad sector, the RAID controller can still detect the physical presence of the individual drives. However, without valid metadata, the controller cannot reconstruct or recognize the logical RAID volume, causing the array to appear unconfigured or "missing" even though the drives are physically present and detected.

• ✗

  The SATA cables are swapped.

  Why it's wrong here

  Swapping SATA data cables between two drives connected to the same RAID controller would not typically prevent the controller from detecting both physical drives. While incorrect cabling might lead to a degraded array or an inability to boot from the array if specific port order is enforced, the fundamental detection of the individual drives by the controller would persist. The issue described is the array not being detected, not the individual drives becoming undetectable due to a cable swap.

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