Hi,
> b= Once a HD failure takes place, you suffer a _permenent_ performance
> drop, even after the automatic volume rebuild, until you take the entire
> RAID 50 array off line, reinitialize it, and rebuild it from scratch.
Where did you get that crazy idea? When you have replaced the drive and the
RAID is rebuilt, you have exactly the same situation as before the drive
failed. Why would you get less performance?
Sander.