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RAID 5 spreads the data across N-1 of the disks and writes a "parity" record on the last one (=1 if the sum of the equivalent bits on the other drives is odd, otherwise zero). The array can survive the loss of one drive, but typically not more than that.
Usually hardware RAID systems handle rebuilding the array themselves. I'm not sure I understand why you think your system has "software" RAID. In Linux, for instance, software RAID means that it's handled by the operating system and no hardware is involved. Some systems use what's called "fake" RAID which is a strange mix of some hardware support and a proprietary OS driver to make it work. That's fine if you run Windows where the driver might exist, but useless if you run any other OS.
Have you tried simply inserting a new disk into the array and watch to see if it gets rebuilt? You need to do this soon in case another drive fails. Then you'll never be able to retrieve the data again.
Remember, too, that RAID is not a substitute for backups. I learned that to my dismay some years back.
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