On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:02 PM, Adam Goryachev  wrote:

Within the last month or thereabouts, I saw a patch go past the list
which indicated that this might happen. Perhaps you need either a newer,
or older version of md (linux kernel) or mdadm.

The issue was failing to start an array which had enough members to
start while a member was marked failed or something like that....

Thanks.  I will try a Live distro with a newer  mdadm + kernel.

You didn't mention the kernel version (or I've missed it) but that is my
suggestion, certainly before you try anything destructive....

It was mentioned right at the beginning of my OP - Stock Debian Squeeze 2.6.32-5

Or someone else may have a more sensible solution for you (hopefully).

I hope so.   I can start afresh from the backups of the critical files
but I stand to loose at least a day's worth of work :(

Thanks,
--  Arun Khan