repositon hard disks

Ack! Run away!

Just keep putting them into the spots one set at a time until the array is recognized - DONT accept any changes to array or initialize until the array is just 'there' on boot (1 logical drive). Start with the 3 disk array until it comes up, then move on to the 4 disk array.

Lets see now. 3 slots and 7 disks = 3 to 7th +1 possible combinations....then the second array will be 4 to the 4th +1 possibilities.......

it can be done, but your going to have to be very careful, take your time, mark each disk, and be VERY patient.

FYI - whomever didn't mark the drives as they came out of the array needs to be shot, patched up, and shot again.

Actually, the 3-drive array has 210=7*6*5 choices, and the 4-drive array has 4!=24 combinations after you solve the 3-drive array. That's assuming that the order matters (my RAID-fu is weak). Otherwise it is simply (7 choose 3) = 35 choices for the 3-drive array, and once you have that, the 4-drive array solves itself (this is so not the case for RAID 0+1, you'll probably have to choose the pairs correctly, which happens 1 in 3 times).

I suggest taking a picture of the wires, then mark all the wires with a color or something unique and take another picture. The way that the cables are bent might give you a clue as to which belongs where, and also lets you keep track of which combinations you've tried.

Or maybe if you're really lucky you can find something with serial numbers associated with the drives, which would make this easyish.

I don't think the port matters, as I have switched ports around in arrays (accidentally) before without incident. The first thing I would try would just be to plug them all in and see if it works.

Given that most people here will have no experience with that controller, (me included) I'd make a call to HP.

I'd be tempted to say that if you knew which drives belonged to which SCSI channel, just plug them in and let the controller sort it out. I know that works with higher end HP controllers, but...

RTFM, and then call HP.