A disk array includes a drive management unit, which is a program for
identifying kinds 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 kind notification unit, which is a program for notifying
of the kind of a disk device when forming the RAID, is provided.