A disk array includes a drive management unit, which is a program for identifying
types of disk devices and managing different disk devices separately, and a drive
management table for storing information to be utilized by the drive management
unit. The disk array further includes a program for managing accumulated time of
disk devices. The program includes a drive lifetime setting portion for setting
lifetimes of drives, a drive start/stop portion for intentionally starting/stopping
ATA disk devices, and an operation time measurement portion for measuring accumulated
operation time. Since it is necessary to be conscious of difference in reliability
and performance among disk devices when forming a RAID, a drive type notification
unit, which is a program for notifying of the type of a disk device when forming
the RAID, is provided.