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RAID Metadata Removal

If you are reusing disk drives that were once members of a RAID array, you should remove the RAID metadata from the disk drives first.

Leaving RAID metadata on drives can cause serious and varied problems when you go to reuse the drives for another purpose.

Intel (Integrated) RAID

Configure the SATA in the host BIOS to RAID mode
Enter the RAID configuration (Control-I)
Delete the RAID volumes
If the RAID configuration (metadata) is 'messed up'
1. Recreate a RAID volume
2. Reboot and go back into the RAID configuration (Control-I) again
3. Delete the RAID volume just created
4. Reboot again

Where x is the drive you want to remove the RAID metadata from:

mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sdx

Then verify:

dmraid -r