The present invention is a method for handling disk drives in a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) configuration. The method may include detecting a disk drive received via insertion of the disk drive in a disk drive slot of an enclosure of the RAID configuration. Prior to the disk drive being received, it may be that fewer than a maximum number of supported disk drives are configured. It may also be the case that, after the disk drive is received, no more than the maximum number of supported drives are in-place within the enclosure of the RAID configuration. In such instances, and when the insertion is a cold insertion into an empty disk drive slot, the method may further include marking the disk drive as Un-configured good alias Ready. Further, if the disk drive is inserted into a missing disk drive slot and has a smaller storage capacity than that of the replaced disk drive previously in place within the missing disk drive slot, the method may further include marking the disk drive as FAIL. Still further, if the disk drive is inserted into a missing disk drive slot and has the same storage capacity or larger storage capacity than the replaced disk drive, the method may further include marking the disk drive as FAIL or RBLD based on an Auto Rebuild flag.