Seagate 4TB SAS ST4000NM0025 EXOS 7E8 Firmware? Drives possibly removed from Hitachi VSP?

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sb1racing

New Member
Oct 29, 2021
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Does anyone have firmware available for the Seagate ST4000NM0025 drives?

I bought some that are using some crazy firmware and where 520. I reformatted them to 512 with sg_format without any issues but now can't seem to write anything to them. In the past a firmware update usually resolves this but I can't seem to find one for these drives?!?

parted:
(parted) mklabel gpt
Error: Input/output error during write on /dev/sda

fdisk:
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
/dev/sda: fsync device failed: Input/output error

sg_readcap:
Read Capacity results:
Protection: prot_en=0, p_type=0, p_i_exponent=0
Logical block provisioning: lbpme=0, lbprz=0
Last logical block address=7814037167 (0x1d1c0beaf), Number of logical blocks=7814037168
Logical block length=512 bytes
Logical blocks per physical block exponent=0
Lowest aligned logical block address=0
Hence:
Device size: 4000787030016 bytes, 3815447.8 MiB, 4000.79 GB

smartctl:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: SEAGATE
Product: DKS2G-H4R0SS
Revision: 6F08
Compliance: SPC-3
User Capacity: 4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Logical block size: 512 bytes
LU is fully provisioned
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 3.5 inches
Logical Unit id: 0x5000c500a6815b07
Serial number: ZC173DGD0000R851KNWH
Device type: disk
Transport protocol: SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is: Fri Oct 29 13:36:39 2021 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Temperature Warning: Disabled or Not Supported

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks!!
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
so I don't see any protection types enabled on the drive - so it is not that.
The symptoms you are describing are pretty much those of a drive that was not properly exported from a Hitachi VSP system for use in non VSP deployments.

Your drive type does not show up as what I'd call "typical" for a VSP - those are usually 2.5" 300GB-1.92TB 10k-15k drives, both seagate and HGST labeled. However your product ID smells like VSP based on what I've personaslly tried to get working (0SS was always there in the id). A quick google search says your drive type does look like it may be from an HGST HUS system - I dont' know anything about those but would not be surprised if it also implemented the "funk" that makes them not work right in simple HBA deployments.

the VSP drives have "funk" in their firmware and implement some sort of delayed or controller triggered and managed write scheme. If these drives came out of a VSP you may be stuck and your best option is to return for refund and buy something. There has been very limited success getting new firmware into VSP drives that made them operational. There was a member who reportedly succeeded. they required folks to send drives to them (in Russia I think) where they did some low level block surgery to rewrite the base drive firmware to take "normal firmware".

You might take a look at this thread for more ideas. I would not be put off by "Hitachi" in the thread title, you go through and there are references to both Seagate (Cobra) drives that did not work and could not be updated as well as some that could. It may give you ideas etc.

something to consider: level of effort to "maybe" make them work versus (if this is still an option) returning them for a refund, spending a little bit more for drives from say an EMC, netapp or HP 3PAR that should just need to be reblocked, long format, and then ready to use.
 

sb1racing

New Member
Oct 29, 2021
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Thanks for the info! Title has been updated. I did notice Hitachi was the only thing coming up when I used Google for "DKS2G-H4R0SS"... They have the Seagate Exos labels on them so I was confused by the search results. I can swap them out for different drives if I can't get these working. Just figured it was worth a shot before shipping them back ;)
 

enthus

New Member
Dec 14, 2021
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I stumbled on this thread with the exact same problem, exact same type of drive. Then I realized I have the same drive that you returned, they shipped it to me mid November. Serial number ZC173DGD0000R851KNWH. I have 4 of these from the same seller, cannot write to the drives at all but they pass Seagates bootable USB checks 100%.

Image of serial number.

It appears HP have a firmware for this type of drive, but it feels a bit risky to start randomly flashing.

It also appears that using a different serial number from another ST4000NM0025 1V4207 (Picture | SN: ZC1BFPDW) I was able to goad Seagates download tool into providing me with a firmware file on this page: Exos 7E | Seagate Support Canada
Enterprise Capacity 7200.5 SAS STD 512N Firmware Update
Enterprise Capacity 7200.5 SAS STD 512N (MakaraBP) firmware update

Perhaps this is the way to go?

Edit: So far all I get when I attempt to flash the firmware is "Firmware Download failed".

Edit: With some verbose logging I've narrowed the firmware update issue to this error:
ASC & ASCQ: 26h - 99h = Vendor specific ascq code
FRU: 3Fh = Vendor Specific

Which according to this document https://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/manual/Interface manuals/100293068j.pdf means 26 99 Invalid Field Parameter—Firmware Tag.

If the firmware tag can be edited in a hex editor maybe it's doable. I've message the seller and I have 4 days to start the return process.

There is also hope in using an open source version of SeaChest to force the firmware. GitHub - Seagate/openSeaChest: Cross platform utilities useful for performing various operations on SATA, SAS, NVMe, and USB storage devices.
 
Last edited:

nihonjin

Lost in translation
Mar 31, 2021
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I stumbled on this thread with the exact same problem, exact same type of drive. Then I realized I have the same drive that you returned, they shipped it to me mid November. Serial number ZC173DGD0000R851KNWH. I have 4 of these from the same seller, cannot write to the drives at all but they pass Seagates bootable USB checks 100%.

Image of serial number.

It appears HP have a firmware for this type of drive, but it feels a bit risky to start randomly flashing.

It also appears that using a different serial number from another ST4000NM0025 1V4207 (Picture | SN: ZC1BFPDW) I was able to goad Seagates download tool into providing me with a firmware file on this page: Exos 7E | Seagate Support Canada
Enterprise Capacity 7200.5 SAS STD 512N Firmware Update
Enterprise Capacity 7200.5 SAS STD 512N (MakaraBP) firmware update

Perhaps this is the way to go?

Edit: So far all I get when I attempt to flash the firmware is "Firmware Download failed".

Edit: With some verbose logging I've narrowed the firmware update issue to this error:
ASC & ASCQ: 26h - 99h = Vendor specific ascq code
FRU: 3Fh = Vendor Specific

Which according to this document https://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/docs/manual/Interface manuals/100293068j.pdf means 26 99 Invalid Field Parameter—Firmware Tag.

If the firmware tag can be edited in a hex editor maybe it's doable. I've message the seller and I have 4 days to start the return process.

There is also hope in using an open source version of SeaChest to force the firmware. GitHub - Seagate/openSeaChest: Cross platform utilities useful for performing various operations on SATA, SAS, NVMe, and USB storage devices.
sorry for resurrecting this thread but, did you finally success flashing them?
 

ownhost

New Member
Jun 16, 2019
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Hello
If the disc is still there, you can make the disc usable with the original firmware update. This is how I solved Hitachi Storage Disks.