Patent ID: 7395460

Claim:
An apparatus for locating a failed disk drive in a plurality of disk drives on a removable disk array module having a midplane, and a backplane connector, said disk array module having been taken out of service, comprising in combination: a host controller disposed on said disk array module for identifying a failed disk drive and for determining the location thereof on said disk array module; a non-volatile memory device disposed on said disk array module for receiving the location of the failed disk drive from said host controller, and for recording same; a plurality of indicator devices, at least one indicator device of said plurality of indicator devices being disposed on the midplane near each of said disk drives, wherein the location of a failed disk drive is displayed by activation of said indicator device corresponding to that disk drive; and a portable disk locator adapted for communicating with said nonvolatile memory device, and for causing the location of the failed disk drive to be displayed, said portable disk locator having a processor for reading said non-volatile memory device, an input-output device connected to said processor for driving said at least one indicator device in response to a disk failure, and a power supply for providing electrical energy to the components of said portable disk locator.