Can't Initiate SAS HDD in Windows 11

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HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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So, basically I just got 3 used 4TB Seagate SAS HDDs for dirt cheap and I got a Cisco UCSC-SAS12GHBA RAID card flashed into IT mode, and I got this mini SAS HD to SAS cable. (I'm using these in a desktop PC) When I go to start it up, the drives spin up like they should but when I go to initiate them with disk management, it says "could not initiate disk because of an I/O error." I also tried going though the windows 10 setup and when I try to create a partition, it doesn't work. To me this sounds like windows can't write anything to the drives, but I really don't know as I just got these and I've never worked with SAS. Also, if this helps, the guy who I bought them from was using them with Server 2019.
 
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CyklonDX

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Nov 8, 2022
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did you see any disks working with this sas controller after you flashed it?

Check the disk from seachest tools, it could be locked.
 

HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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I didn't flash it myself (I got it already flashed) but in the PC motherboard BIOS the disks do show up under the SAS controller
 

CyklonDX

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Nov 8, 2022
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sector format

You may have to use either sg_format or seachest tools to correct format those disks.

(here's a thread about reformatting, as well as checking sector size in sg utils under linux.)


for windows

exe location


and you would check id of the disk
SeaChest_Format_x64_windows.exe -s

check supported formats
SeaChest_Format_x64_windows.exe -d [ID0-9] --showSupportedFormats

format to different sector size
SeaChest_Format_x64_windows.exe -d [ID0-9] --setSectorSize XXX --confirm this-will-erase-data-and-may-render-the-drive-inoperable
[would recommend 512 or 4096 - depends on your supported formats]
 
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HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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I tried using Ubuntu but I cant do anything with the drives. When I try to mount the disk it gives me an error message just like when I try to initiate them in windows
 

HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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I dont know what msg is and seachest tools are. I just put in this command in Ubuntu that the guy I bought them from said to do: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M
 
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HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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Ok, what confuses me is that the guy I bought these from used them in windows servers 2019 so I went to install servers 2019 but in the setup menu it gives me an error when I choose the drive. This makes me think could it be something other than the drives? Could it be the SAS HBA? The mini sas HD to sas cable? (I think I better understand the previous responses too so I think I'll try the seachest tools soon)
 

Sorin Bidian

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Jan 13, 2016
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As other say You need to format disk to 512 sector> I don't think that your disks work on Windows server
 

HMPumpkin

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Oct 2, 2024
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I don't understand how to use the SeaChest tools. When I open the exe, it shows the "Do you want to let this app make changes to you device" but after that it doesn't do anything. I also can't do any format to the disks on windows 11, windows server, and ubuntu. On Win 11, it says "Could not initiate disk because of an I/O error." On Ubuntu, it says "could not mount disk." Are you sure this isn't related to the SAS HBA or SAS cable?