Dell R530 with H730 Controller - Cant See Non-Dell SAS Drive?

[CopeyJ]

Hi,

Any way I can get the Dell H730 controller to see a non-dell SAS drive? I picked up a 'bargain' hdd but can’t do anything with it.
It shows in the bios as 'Ready' but is absent everywhere else - Ive tried gparted and sg_utils with no joy too.

Plain SATA drives are detected fine.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[BLinux]

there could be many reasons, but this is one possibility:

 

[CopeyJ]

Hi @BLinux, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, ive tried that guide but had no luck - The disk isnt detected beyond the Dell bios/controller.
The screen below is all the info I have:

 

[BLinux]

Hi @BLinux, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, ive tried that guide but had no luck - The disk isnt detected beyond the Dell bios/controller.
The screen below is all the info I have:

View attachment 24056

you are having exactly the problem i mentioned above. see the "block size" in your screenshot... 520bytes. they need to be reformatted to 512bytes.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Hopefully the FW hasn't locked the sector size, there will probably be a reason the drive is a 'bargain'
Looking at the drive model, Google can't find it so FW for it might be awkward unless a AL14SEB12 FW will work if it comes down to it

 

[CopeyJ]

you are having exactly the problem i mentioned above. see the "block size" in your screenshot... 520bytes. they need to be reformatted to 512bytes.

Can’t format unless I can get the drive to be visible beyond the bios though... can I?

 

[CopeyJ]

Hopefully the FW hasn't locked the sector size, there will probably be a reason the drive is a 'bargain'
Looking at the drive model, Google can't find it so FW for it might be awkward unless a AL14SEB12 FW will work if it comes down to it

I've just noticed that the reported Product ID doesnt match the sticker (rookie mistake)
I guess someone already tried a bios and cooked it??

 

[gregsachs]

I think you need as dumb a HBA as possible to do the reformat to 512bytes. I have never been able to get through a raid controller to reformat 520b drives, as I have not been able to set them to JBOD mode.

 

[mobilenvidia]

As Greg said get an HBA to format that drive
Looking hopeful that it will be doable with the model of drive
Also with an HBA you'll be able to get a proper report on the drive model and FW on it
Linux Live CD/ISO then follow the very good guide above on formatting to 512byte sectors

 

[BLinux]

Can’t format unless I can get the drive to be visible beyond the bios though... can I?

You need an HBA controller to do the reformatting.

 

[CopeyJ]

There is a Dell HBA330 Mini Mono available close to me - will this do the trick?
If so, I guess I can leave it in place and sell on the H730?

 

[BLinux]

There is a Dell HBA330 Mini Mono available close to me - will this do the trick?
If so, I guess I can leave it in place and sell on the H730?

yeah, the HBA330 mini should do the job. Whether you leave it in place or go back to the H730 depends on your preference for hardware RAID or something else.

 

[mobilenvidia]

If we're talking one 1.2TB HDD as like it seems, it would probably cheaper to get 512byte version of the drive ?
You are going to spend more on the H330 than that drive is worth, H200 (cheap as chips) would also do and leave the H730 mini in place if HW RAID is your thing