How to reformat HDD & SSD to 512B Sector Size

[bandit8623]

Gave this a shot, had to boot up SPP 8.1 to get bash shell, no go though. Via SSA, the controller does show as Mixed Mode, so the drives should be visible to OS but SSA also shows all drives as failed. Will just wait to swap the cables from the controller to the mobo.

View attachment 23432

so previous hpe controllers still havenyt supported 4kn drives. this may be the issue. im not sure about your controller. if the controller doesnt support 4kn then it cant touch 520 or 528 bps because the base on those drives is 4kn. quickspecs dont mention anything about 4kn... https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00047736enw.pdf?jumpid=in_pdp-psnow-qs

if it does support make sure u are booting UEFI not legacy.

on latest firmware? HPE Support Center
Version: 5.00(B) (6 May 2022)

 

[masterchief07]

Yup, latest version and yes, booting UEFI. I will see if I can find a definite answer regarding 4k support.

 

[bandit8623]

Yup, latest version and yes, booting UEFI. I will see if I can find a definite answer.

seems like the controller is acting like an lsi card would with jbod mode. ill see if i can try my 3108 lsi card in jbod mode and format a 520 drive. cant promise when ill run this test.

 

[bandit8623]

Yup, latest version and yes, booting UEFI. I will see if I can find a definite answer regarding 4k support.

so i grabbed a few drives that were 512 bps and they are formatting fine to 520 with sg tools in windows. also drives are showing all information in hd sentinel. so acting just like an hba.

maybe a driver issue as well since ur using linux? usually the driver should change when in jbod.

in device manager my 9361-8i changes from that in raid mode to - Avago SDS sas 9A61-8i. totally diff driver.

 

[masterchief07]

Yeah, no go here. I installed Windows and still can't get the drives to show. Last ditch effort I am going to scoop an HP H220 HBA and try that way. Hopefully they'll pass through and reformatting to 512b via that will allow them to show via the P408i so I can get them into a RAID array.

 

[bandit8623]

so looks like jbod only likes 4k or 512 at least for lsi as well. once formatted to 520 all the drives show up as unsupported and wont pass any info to the os. hdsentinel no longer can grab any smart info. pic attached.

my guess is once u have drives formatted to 4k or 512 they will pass through. unless u want to use a raid then no need

in your case 4kn would be your best bet if the controller supports.

 

[masterchief07]

Installed the HBA, drives showed up immediately. Reformatted to 512b and we are good to go on the 408i.

 

[XeonSam]

- deleted-

 

[Mithril]

Trying and failing to reformat 2 HUH728080AL5201 (HGST Ultrastar He8) to actual 512. They seem to have protection enabled so they are showing lower than normal capacity. I have multiple of this model and the rest are showing 8TB (in base 10) on the nose (more or less). 8001563222016 vs 7865536647168
I've done a few passes of sg_format, with and without the "no disk level protection/extra bits" flags, such as " sg_format -v --format --fmtpinfo=0 --pfu=0 --size=512". Tried power cycling the machine just in case, still no change.

They were in use "as is" and function fine, but it bothers me

 

[itronin]

@Mithril

my recollection is (1) get rid of the protection (2) I formatted to 4k blocks then I saw the correct size... I use 4K blocks. its possible that taking it back down to 512 at that point will report the correct size then again... long wait time for the experiment to complete though.

I also recall a post somewhere - so let me look.

yeah over at serverbuilds.net

Fixing Sun Oracle (HGST) 8TB drives reporting 7.86TB

Preface This guide provides general guidance and is based on my Unraid setup. Specific commands for tools, time frame and final settings depend on your setup. Following this guide will require a low level format of your hard drive. You will need a 4K compatible SAS controller. Once...

forums.serverbuilds.net

 

[Mithril]

@Mithril

my recollection is (1) get rid of the protection (2) I formatted to 4k blocks then I saw the correct size... I use 4K blocks. its possible that taking it back down to 512 at that point will report the correct size then again... long wait time for the experiment to complete though.

I also recall a post somewhere - so let me look.

yeah over at serverbuilds.net

Fixing Sun Oracle (HGST) 8TB drives reporting 7.86TB

Preface This guide provides general guidance and is based on my Unraid setup. Specific commands for tools, time frame and final settings depend on your setup. Following this guide will require a low level format of your hard drive. You will need a 4K compatible SAS controller. Once...

forums.serverbuilds.net

Formatting to 4k did the trick! Not sure if that would have worked as the first step or if it was a combo of steps, but regardless all drives now show 8,001,563,222,016