On Tue, 6 Oct 2020 06:05:40 -0500
Kenneth Emerson [off-list ref] wrote:

If I assemble and force it to run, the drives are no longer spare but
even with a --force, the array will not go active:

root@MythTV:/home/ken# mdadm --assemble --run /dev/md3
root@MythTV:/home/ken# cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5]
[raid4] [raid10]
md0 : active raid1 sdc1[2] sde1[4] sdd1[3] sdb1[1]
      292800 blocks [5/4] [_UUUU]

md1 : active raid1 sdc2[4] sde2[1] sdd2[3] sdb2[2]
      292968384 blocks [5/4] [_UUUU]

md3 : inactive sdc4[9] sde4[4] sdd4[2] sdb4[3]
      10532388320 blocks super 1.0

Would be nice to see 'mdadm --detail /dev/md3' when it's in this state, and 
what it says in 'dmesg' after you tried --force.

-- 
With respect,
Roman