sas drives wont spin up

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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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i got a batch of those 10 sas 4tb...... hooked 4 up to a Mini SAS SFF-8087 36Pin to 4 SFF-8482 and connect the sata power cables but the drives didn't power up and start spinning....

does sas drive only start spinning once you hook up to a sas controller? the sata drives would start spinning even when only hooked up to a power connector.
 
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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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can someone explain all this? ;( why is this not working with the cable i got?
 
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Rain

Active Member
May 13, 2013
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can someone explain all this? ;( why is this not working with the cable i got?
See: https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/HGST-Power-Disable-Pin-TB.pdf

An update to the SATA/SAS spec reserves pins 1 through 3 on the power connector for extra functionality instead of 3.3v because 3.5" drives requiring 3.3v are incredibly uncommon today. Pin 3 is now used for PWDIS ("Power Disable") to allow backplanes / controllers completely shut down drives to either reset them or save power. If you're powering newer drives on a backplane or with power connectors that provide 3.3v on pins 1, 2 and 3 (to match the outdated specifications), the drive will simply not spin up. 3.3v on pin 3 signals the drive to enter "Power Disable" mode. As @rubylaser noted, there is an easy work around.

With the cable you posted in the OP, you could either put tape on the drives or on the connector. Alternatively, you can power the drives with a Molex to SATA adapter (because they lack 3.3v).
 
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wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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See: https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/HGST-Power-Disable-Pin-TB.pdf

An update to the SATA/SAS spec reserves pins 1 through 3 on the power connector for extra functionality instead of 3.3v because 3.5" drives requiring 3.3v are incredibly uncommon today. Pin 3 is now used for PWDIS ("Power Disable") to allow backplanes / controllers completely shut down drives to either reset them or save power. If you're powering newer drives on a backplane or with power connectors that provide 3.3v on pins 1, 2 and 3 (to match the outdated specifications), the drive will simply not spin up. 3.3v on pin 3 signals the drive to enter "Power Disable" mode. As @rubylaser noted, there is an easy work around.

With the cable you posted in the OP, you could either put tape on the drives or on the connector. Alternatively, you can power the drives with a Molex to SATA adapter (because they lack 3.3v).
will see if i can find any molex to sata adapter. those are not common now ;(
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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I'm....confused.

The cable you have mentioned/shown is in effect a breakout cable from 8087 to 4x sas/sata. You still need to power the drives somehow... how were you planning to do that??
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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it's a 8087 to sas with only a sata power connector, not sata data connector. i will now have to use an additional molex to sata power cable and connect that to the power plug on that breakout cable....

I don't like doing the taping so i guess i have to try the molex to sata adapter and also plug in a molex modular cable into my modular power supply

what a mess!
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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No No...what I'm trying to get at is, if your power supply already has SATA power connectors (I'm assuming that's why you bought this cable??), they should work just fine. The SATA power connectors from a PSU are (in general) no different than molex to sata, they rarely carry 3.3v.

Have you hooked up to the controller as well? Which controller are you using?
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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hooked up to the adaptec 31605. didn't spin up either.... but drive should spin up even without any adapter, shouldn't it?
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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hooked up to the adaptec 31605. didn't spin up either.... but drive should spin up even without any adapter, shouldn't it?
Not necassarily. In fact the drives in my JBODs do not spin up until the "head" is alive. They are powered on as soon as the JBOD has power, but for a drive to "have power" vs "powered up/spun up" are two different things.

The principle is the same in your case.

Is your controller "working"? Has it worked with other disks in the past? Does it support 4Tb drives? Have you checked the firmware version(s)?
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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works with sata drives before but i will have to check if the firmware on this particular adaptor is most uptodate since i haven't used this adapter before... i have another exact one that does have the latest firmware and is running a bunch of 3tb and 4tb sata drives in another computer....

how do i check to see if the drive actually is getting power if it doesn't spin?
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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Connect one of these drives to the adapter in the other computer and test.

Edit: "how do i check to see if the drive actually is getting power if it doesn't spin?" - Are they in case which has drive LEDs? If not, it might be hard to check.
 

Rain

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May 13, 2013
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The SATA power connectors from a PSU are (in general) no different than molex to sata, they rarely carry 3.3v.
What? Every standard desktop PSU I've ever owned or seen has 3.3V on the SATA power connectors. Even recently released ATX PSUs still ship with 5 wires to the SATA power connectors. There are a few recent models that don't, sure, but the vast majority still do.

It's easy to spot, just count how many wires lead into the SATA power connectors. If it's five, you've got 3.3V. The correct wire colors are +12V (Yellow), +5V (Red), +3.3V (Orange), and two Grounds (both Black), but with the fancy "all black" cables you can't just look for Orange.

@wildpig1234 How many wires lead into the SATA power connector you're plugging into these drives?
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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well, i will have to dig out my molex to sata power adapter to test this out.... i hope i can get these drives working and hopefully these drives are all good with no bad sectors and low times...