Hello,   FYI:  You can't legally use that firmware on those arrays not under contract. Even if you have other arrays that are.  When you download it, it's part of the EULA you agree to and it's one of the bullet points on the download page.   usually a drive that has been marked as failed stays failed. Even after an upgrade.   You can't upgrade firmware if the RAID is in a non-healthy state.  My suggestion is replace the drives first and get your spares back before attempting to upgrade.  It is very possible that AFTER you upgrade the improved failure analysis will start preemptively failing drives. Good news is it will mirror the failing drive to the spare, so there's no long rebuild process.  I have seen that will very old, well used drives, that iffy drives will be mirrored out.  One side note, if you have been replacing the failed drives with larger drives, once ALL the drives are replaced including the spares the RAIDset will expand into the unused space so you will gain more space.    You can convert from RAID50 to RAID6 without losing data.  It will take some time to complete and will consume one of your spares.  I would do that AFTER you replace all the drives AND upgrade the firmware if you are going to do so.   And after you have applied any drive firmware updates.   Regards, Don  
I have a Equalogic PS6100XV, it worked well for almost 6 years,but now the hard drives have started to break down.I am replacing the defective disks as soon as possible, but 6 HD's were damaged in less than 3 months. Is any equipment defect damaging the disks? or is it just the lifespan of the disks that is coming to the end?
Equalogic disks lifespan