If the disk is faulted, a copy to hotspare operation should have been started automatically, regardless of the cause. (This is assuming the failed disk has a valid candidate to act as a hot spare for it -- size and architecture)  I would start USM and run the "Hardware Replacement" wizard to see if the array is showing the faulted disk as a replacement candidate. It will verify there are no pending transtitions and what state it is in.  If you are some time away from getting support, you may then consider unbinding/deleting one of the hotspares, removing it and using it as a replacement for the faulted disk, providing USM shows it being ok for replacing. This will leave you with one hotspare and a full functional Pool, with no transitions in progress.
I have a customer with a VNX 5300 Block Only system which just experienced a disk failure (reported as "Faulted" in Unisphere and "Disk Removed" in the list of disks).  However, based on the Event Logs, it looks like a "Soft Media Error."  I noticed that neither of the (2) Hot Spare drives kicked in.  I presume this is by design with a Soft Media Error?  I do see an option to "Copy to Hot Spare" which I believe kicks off an on-demand Proactive Hot Spare operation.  My question is, are there risks associated with kicking off a Proactive Hot Spare operation?  The reason I ask is that the VNX Support contract just expired, and we are in the process of renewing it.  Because this VNX is in a far-away country, the paperwork is going to take a long time, so I want to minimize risk of data loss caused by this drive failure.  Is the EMC best practice to leave the failed disk alone (in the "Soft Media Error" state), or kick off a manual "Copy to Hot Spare" operation?  The code level is VNX OE 32 Patch 215 and the disk is part of a RAID 5 storage pool (not RAID group).  There are two inactive hot spares of the same type (SAS) available.  Thanks, Bill
Risks associated with initiating a Proactive Hot Spare operation?