Patent ID: 7457981

Claim:
A disk array system comprising: a controller, adapted to be coupled to a host computer, and controlling receiving/transferring data from/to said host computer and controlling reading/writing data; a plurality of first disk drives, coupled to said controller, and being related to a first RAID group and storing data in accordance with controlling by said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface; a plurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controller, and being related to a second RAID group and storing data in accordance with controlling by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface; and at least one third disk drive, coupled to said controller, and comprising an FC interface, wherein, if said controller performs sparing of at least one of said first disk drives related to said first RAID group to said third disk drive as a spare disk drive, said controller relates said third disk drive to said first RAID group even though an interface type of said first disk drives is different from an interface type of said third disk drive so that said third disk drive and said first disk drives other than said at least one of said first disk drives are used to store at least data received from said host computer.