How to reformat HDD & SSD to 512B Sector Size

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itronin

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Nov 24, 2018
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output helps and -

oh -

and that's a bummer.

"device becoming ready (wait)" smartctl failed

not saying it can't be done but beyond my knowledge at this time to help you - maybe someone else???

sounds very similar to issues with drives not being deprovisioned from HGST VSP storage systems.

tldr: drives are probably write protected and were not (properly) deprovisioned from the IBM storage system they lived in.

linkages:

you may want to look at this thread in the unraid forums


also here
 
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Myheart

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Jan 3, 2023
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Hello everyone I recently bought a Seagate Exos X10 from a data storage system. The seller's disk was displayed with a volume of 0 bytes, I thought I could flash it to 512 bytes per sector on my own, but when connected to the Adaptec ASR-8405 controller in HBA mode, the disk spins up, but is not detected. It is not visible either in the controller BIOS or in the SG3_Utils utilities, or in HBA or in the RAID mode of the controller.

Does it make sense to search for LSI-9211 in IT mode? Do these controllers poll hard drives differently in HBA mode?
 
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i386

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Hello everyone I recently bought a Seagate Exos X10 from a data storage system. The seller's disk was displayed with a volume of 0 bytes, I thought I could flash it to 512 bytes per sector on my own, but when connected to the Adaptec ASR-8405 controller in HBA mode, the disk spins up, but is not detected. It is not visible either in the controller BIOS or in the SG3_Utils utilities, or in HBA or in the RAID mode of the controller.
This sounds similar...
I have seen this with an exos x16 where the seachest tool crashed and didn't finish the formatting to 4096b. Drive was unrecoverable in windows and linux with raid controllers and hbas and had to be rma'ed.
 
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sammydam42

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Feb 21, 2023
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I have the follwoing drives. - SS160520 CLAR200. They are 200GB SSD's from an EMC vnxe3300. The label says Samsung is the manufacturer.

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: SATA-SAM
Product: SS160520 CLAR200
Revision: TC3Q
Compliance: SPC-2
User Capacity: 200,049,647,720 bytes [200 GB]
Logical block size: 520 bytes
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Form Factor: 3.5 inches
Device type: disk
Transport protocol: SAS (SPL-3)

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sg??? bs=104857600
sg_format -v --format --size=520 /dev/sg???
sg_format -v --format --size=512 /dev/sg???
./setblocksize -b512 /dev/sg???


I have tried the following and nothing works to format these. Has anyone been successful in converting these to 512?

I found this post by Wendell - How to reformat 520 byte drives to 512 bytes (usually) - Hardware - Level1Techs Forums - no luck
I read this - Reformat EMC Hard Drives to use in other systems - 520 to 512 Block Size Conversion - Solved (mikeyurick.com) - no luck
I read this - PissedOffAdmins » unsupported sector size 520 - no luck

I have some 2TB drives from the same EMC san and was successful in formatting these to 512. open to ideas on how to get SSD's formatted.
 
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yukas

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Jun 3, 2022
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i have drives TOSHIBA/NETAPP 3.84TB 2.5" 12Gb/s SAS SSD PX05SRQ384B with locked 520bps,
Has anyone been successful in converting these to 512? or 4096?
 
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DouglasteR

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Dec 19, 2015
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Just FYI, formatted another 4 drives in my array to 512 without problems.

Using Windows Server 2016, sg3_utils-1.46mgw64.zip from The sg3_utils package

Sg_scan to see avaliable drives and then:

sg_format.exe --format --size=512 PD#

Cheers !
 
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WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Hi folks, first time poster, thanks for the great resource here! I have read this thread from start to finish (!) with the hopes of getting some ex-Netapp drives working in other hardware and haven't been able to figure it out.

I have a huge stack (almost 100) of Samsung SM1633 1.6TB SAS SSDs, model "MZ-IWS1T9B" that have come out of a large Netapp system after being securely erased (I'm not the Netapp guy, I don't know more details than that, but I can ask).

First I tried putting one straight in the server I wanted to use it with, a Cisco UCS C240 M4S2 with a Cisco 12G SAS Modular RAID Controller (a rebadged LSI Logic unit). The CIMC reported the drive as "unconfigured_bad, severe fault" with a size of 0 bytes. Then I started googling and found out about the whole 512/520 bytes thing.

I popped one of the discs in an old Dell R630 server with a Perc H730 Mini controller in HBA mode. There's a regular SAS HDD (never been in a Netapp) in it and the ex-Netapp SSD. The SSD is listed in the DRAC firmware as "SSD, SAS. 1.477TB, Ready, (0KB)", with a logical and physical sector size of 512B. Firmware is reported as "NA04". The Perc firmware gives me the option of making the HDD a boot able disk, but not the SSD. The HDD is listed by the Perc as "HDD, SAS, 1.091TB, Non-RAID, (512B)"

The HDD shows up in linux (I'm using a Centos 7 live USB stick) but the SSD is not visible using sg_scan, I see the USB stick, the HDD and a Dell backplane device. Likewise, 'dmesg | grep sg' shows me three devices and the "Block layer SCSI generic (BSG) driver" being loaded.

Any suggestions on where I go next to make the SSD visible?
 
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mrpasc

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Jan 8, 2022
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I do own a C220 M4 and used it to reformat NetApp SSDs (PM1633 and Toshiba ones).
I needed to set the Cisco (LSI) RAID controller to „JBOD“ modus, afterwards I was able to boot a live Linux from usb and could detect and format them to 512 with the sg3 utility. Give it a try.
 
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WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Thanks, that’s encouraging! I can’t change the HBA in that particular machine as it’s in production, but I have a couple of other Cisco M4 UCS chassis I’m decommissioning soon that I should hopefully be able to use for this.

I’ll report back on how I get on.
 
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WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Okay, progress!

I got one of the Samsung SSDs in a C220M4S, went into the Megaraid BIOS utility and configured everything for JBOD (noting that it saw the Samsung drive and identified as a Netapp disk with 520B logical sectors and 4KB physical sectors).

Before rebooting I noted that the PD (physical disk) Mgmt screen listed both the 279GB HDD and the 1.4TB SSD as having a State of "JBOD"

When rebooted into Centos 7 I could see the HDD, but not the SSD

I rebooted into the MegaRAID BIOS again to check settings and it is now showing the SSD with a state of "Blocked" and won't let me erase it or change it's state.

The Blocked state appears to be an indication that there is an incompatibility between the controller and the drive, either communication or block size. Is there something I can do in the controller to persuade these SSDs to work?

(Gonna update all the firmware on the C220 and try again)

@mrpasc
 
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mrpasc

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@WiteWulf Sorry, when I re-formatted my drives it simply worked with UCS-MRAID controller in JBOD mode. I use systemrescue live cd image for that task, but this shouldn't matter.
So sorry, no further ideas.
 
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WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Well, I updated all the firmware on the C220 and it's still only passing through the HDD in JBOD mode (it even tells you this as it boots up, before the OS starts loading).

Some reports online suggest that JBOD/HBA mode is not the same as IT Mode, and the Perc 730 Mini I have in the Dell, and the UCS-MRAID in the C220, are both incapable of running in "proper" IT Mode:
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/w5mgln
I'm going to hunt around the trade-in pile at work and see if I can find a different controller that will operate in IT Mode
 
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WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Yeah, just looking at Perc 310s on eBay now. Should be able to get one for ~£20

The Perc 730 Mini in the R630 connects to the drive cage using what appears to be a proprietary cable and connector, a high density plug that breaks out to two SFF8643 connectors (one for each disk enclosure, labelled BP SAS A and BP SAS B).

The Perc 310 appears to have two SFF8087 connectors.

Would something like this be the right cable for connecting the two?

SFF-8087 to SFF-8643 Cable 1m - SAS Cables | StarTech.com United Kingdom

If so I can hopefully find a cheaper one somewhere :)

*edit*

I bit the bullet and ordered one of these:
Mini SAS 36Pin SFF-8087 to Mini SAS 36Pin SFF-8643 Internal HD Data Cable UK | eBay
...and one of these:
Dell PowerEdge PERC H310 6Gb/s 8-Port PCIe x8 SAS RAID Card 03P0R3 3P0R3 | eBay

...and will no doubt shortly be following this guide:
H310 Full Size - Fohdeesha Docs

I'll let you know how I get on...
 
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mrpasc

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Some reports online suggest that JBOD/HBA mode is not the same as IT Mode, and the Perc 730 Mini I have in the Dell, and the UCS-MRAID in the C220, are both incapable of running in "proper" IT Mode:
Whilst this is true for using them with ZFS or Ceph or vSAN (cause they have a very limited queue depth in JBOD mode) this should not prevent them to be used for the reformating or firmware update.
I keep fingers crossed for your PercH310 journey but still wondering if that will help with your issue….
 

WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Whilst this is true for using them with ZFS or Ceph or vSAN (cause they have a very limited queue depth in JBOD mode) this should not prevent them to be used for the reformating or firmware update.
I keep fingers crossed for your PercH310 journey but still wondering if that will help with your issue….
Ah, thanks mate.

Hopefully it works out; it's only ~£30 total and I'm sat looking at a pile of ninety 1.6TB SSDs that are going in a shredder if I can't do anything with them, so it's not an expensive gamble :)

It is odd, though, that I can't find any mention of these SM1633 disks online other than on reseller sites. No one but me seems to have tried to reuse them outside of a Netapp system and posted about it (that I can find).
 

WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Hi again, checking in with a quick update and looking for some more advice

Things are super busy at work at the moment so I'm dipping in and out of this as I have the opportunity :)

I got the controller and cables, put the controller (Perc H310) in, and connected up the two internal drive cages. On booting the machine up the iDRAC complains that it can't see the drive cage backplanes, as it's looking for them in the onboard Perc Mini and tells me to press any key to go into a driver config utility. I just get a black screen at that point. Reconnecting the drive cages to the onboard controller continues to give the same error; I eventually had to remove the battery from the onboard controller, resetting something, to get it to boot up properly again.

I've tried disabling, and completely removing, the onboard Perc controller and get the same behaviour every time. It seems the R630 will simply not boot without the internal drive cages connected to the onboard Perc Mini.

So now it's looking like I may need to connect to the Perc H310 to a separate SAS drive tray, and there's one going cheap on eBay at the moment, but does anyone have a suggestion as to how I might get the existing setup in the R630 to work?
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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I've only owned one Dell server and it was a dog. Issues like you have are totally unnecessary. I use Supermicro. It's proven to be the most glitch free and trouble free brand there is. They don't play stupid games with their customers on purpose, Dell always has and always will.

Good luck, hope you can get your issues resolved.
 

WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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A little more progress moving back to the Cisco UCS chassis: it's happy with one drive cage connected to the onboard controller and one connected to the Perc H310.

The Perc is still showing the Netapp SSD as "blocked" and not presenting it to the OS, but I've not flashed it to IT mode yet. So that's my next job...
 

WiteWulf

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Jul 14, 2023
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Success!!!

I flashed the HBA to IT mode (with no boot ROM), booted off my centos7 live usb stick and the disk was finally visible to the OS.

I formatted it to 512byte sectors (which was surprisingly quick, maybe 2-3 minutes), formatted it to ext3 (which took a lot longer), mounted and verified 1.4TB formatted capacity.

Then, just to be sure, I moved the disk back over to the onboard Cisco 12G controller and confirmed the disk was still visible and accessible.

I haven’t tested it in another machine yet, but I see no reason why it won’t work.

Thank you so much for the help given to me, and for the resource gathered here on the site overall.
 
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