Hard drives randomly not recognized?

[altano]

I didn't want rack hardware for my home server because of noise and awkwardness and that decision has caused me many headaches. Frequently when I start my machine, one (random) hard drive isn't detected by the system. Rebooting or moving the drive to another port fixes it. I can't figure out why!

I'd love to post my system here once it's working properly but I'm not quite there yet

My hardware:

• Chassis: Lian-Li PC-D8000 w/ 20 hard drive bays
• CPU: 2 x E5-2670s
• Memory: 8 x PC3L-10600R ECC DIMM
  
• Motherboard: Supermicro X9DRD-IF-O
• 3 X Dell PERC H310 cards flashed to IT mode
• 6 x Lian-Li's backplane accessory that is 3 x SATA data/power on the HD side and 2 x molex 3 x sata on the back
  
• PSU: Corsair HX1000i
• All the backplanes are connected to the H310s via SFF-8087 breakout cables
• 11 HDs plugged into the backplanes
  • 4 x WD30EFRX
  • 4 x WD60EFRX
  • 3 x HD204UI

My best guess is that the machine is having trouble powering up all the hard drives at start despite the PSU being wayyyy overpowered for this system. I can't stagger the hard drive startup as far as I know because I'm just using dumb backplanes from Lian-Li and this isn't a real server... assuming the H310s in IT mode even support it. I'm the opposite of an electrical engineer so if anyone has any ideas on how to diagnose this issue, I would appreciate it.

Here's a stock photo of the front of the chassis with the cover off, where you put in the HDs:

Here's my build:

Close-up of the HD connections:

Backplanes with nothing plugged in:

Let me know if I can provide any more info.

 

[i386]

Rebooting or moving the drive to another port fixes it.

Sounds like a power problem where the drives are not properly initialized.
How dou you power the backplanes? 2x molex connectors per backplane? Or do you use the sata power connector (top left on the backplane)?

 

[altano]

I'm using the SATA power connectors. You can't tell what's going on from the zoomed out picture, but I have 4 SATA power cables connected to the PSU. Each one has 5 SATA power connectors, which I run up the stack of 10 hard drive ports alternating each connection, like this:

 

[altano]

The problem just occurred again: I booted up and 1 drive was missing from my Storage Space. I pulled it out and plugged it back in. I could feel it losing power and then getting power again (probably not a good idea for me to be pulling these drives while the machine is on?) but the storage space still didn't pick it up. I moved it to another backplane and the storage space picked it up right away.

 

[K D]

Is the issue with specific drive slots or random? Check the power cables as well as the SAS breakout cables. Alternatively try powering with the molex connectors. To me this looks like a power cable issue

 

[altano]

Is the issue with specific drive slots or random? Check the power cables as well as the SAS breakout cables.

Random. Different drives different slots.

Alternatively try powering with the molex connectors. To me this looks like a power cable issue

Is there a reason you think it might work better with the molex connectors? I only ask b/c that won't be easy for me to test since we're talking about so many drives, and it's hard to get cables with so many connectors.

 

[K D]

To eliminate the sata power cable as a source of the problem.

 

[i386]

I'm using the SATA power connectors. You can't tell what's going on from the zoomed out picture, but I have 4 SATA power cables connected to the PSU. Each one has 5 SATA power connectors, which I run up the stack of 10 hard drive ports alternating each connection, like this:

I think that's your problem. One cable is supposed to power up to 5 directly connected hdd.
Try one cable (yellow) per backplane and if it fixes your problem.

 

[altano]

You sure? I've seen many examples of people building custom cables to power all 10 drives on each column of backplanes off a single cable, e.g. [H]ard Forum Storage Showoff Thread 2015

 

[i386]

Yeah but they probably use a normal molex cable which supports up to 75watt. Psus with cable management can have less power per cable and cause problems that you have described.

 

[T_Minus]

We've got another thread going with similar issues with home/cheaper hot swap/backplanes too. In my experience it def. takes a "#" of drives before the issue starts to occur so I'm not sure if it's a resource issue, setting issue, or power-draw on startup issue that doesn't initialize all drives or what. Yet, in another system I have 3 drives and 3 sep. backplanes and I've had to move 1 drive to each to make it work yet they all worked fine onthe same backplane before (not expander)...

Looking for more ideas

 

[K D]

Yeah but they probably use a normal molex cable which supports up to 75watt. Psus with cable management can have less power per cable and cause problems that you have described.

for single rail PSUs it should not matter how many cables. I have powered 14 drives from 1 cable in a corsair hx 750 using a custom molex cable. I am not aware of the max power draw of sata cables.

 

[altano]

for single rail PSUs it should not matter how many cables.

I just double checked and my PSU (Corsair HX1000i) has a software toggle and is currently in multi-rail mode. I guess I should toggle it to single rail since I didn't even pay attention where I was plugging things in.

How can this be a software toggle?

Also, I wish I could get a definitive answer on this. Everyone seems to say conflicting things on the question of powering lots of hard drives and I'm in no place to know what to believe. :/

 

[K D]

Set it to single rail mode and try. You may need to connect the corsair link cable and use their software.

The most I have run hard drives off a single cable is by connecting the Norco backplane to one output in a corsair hx1050. That is 24 drives fully populated. Never had any issues. But that was with Molex connectors.