Weird issue with drive format / bench

[T_Minus]

I have around 40 SSD I'm working through formatting (long) then running through Anvil and CDM to make sure the #s look good. They're a mix from about 5 sellers. Around 26 HGST SAS 200GB SLC drives, 8 12Gb/s HGST drives, 2 other 12Gb/s drives and some misc S3710/S3700 and S3500, maybe closer to 50 drives.

My test bench system is an E3-1231 v3 w/supermicro motherboard, and HBA, and the OS drive is onboard SATA. I did a fresh install of Win7.

- 2x S3710 = Formatted, updated firmware and benched no problems
- 1x 100GB SLC = Formatted, and benched no problems
- 8x 12Gb/s = Formatted, and benched no problems. 5 Yesterday, and 3 Today
- 1x 12Gb/s OEM = Formatted and benched no problems

1x 200GB went fine but when I went to connect the 2nd it never was found in HD Sentinel or Windows drive management so I plugged in a 3rd it didn't show up either, and now windows C: primary drive listing went away too! Then, 5 seconds later the system just rebooted by itself. When it rebooted the HGST drive was found in HD Sentinel but not listed on Windows Drive Management, and then it rebooted all by itself again.

At first since these drives were a different batch I was thinking they were bad.

The HBA has a 120m fan blowing directly on it, ambient temp are low 60s and to touch the heatsink didn't 'burn' my hand was just 'in-use' hot.

However, after this weird behavior now I'm thinking something else is wrong, but what, where? I'm leaning toward windows but maybe it's the HBA?

Anyone have any ideas?


I'm going to swap my OS SSD to my Linux SSD and see if that detects drives / boots / works no problem, but found this to be very strange.

 

[T_Minus]

So I have 1 drive not being detected in linux, the other 2 that didn't initialize in windows are not in linux either but are detected, I'm thinking 520b and those 2 will work. Not sure why Windows was rebooting, maybe that OS drive is failing ironically at the same time?

Bums me out now that I'm missing a 12Gb/s to finish off that 4drive array ;( ugh!

 

[T_Minus]

Confirmed, the 2 not 'initializing' in windows are in fact 520b, and now being converted to 512.

The other drive that was not detected in either can't be found and return started with ebay.
The worst part is the "broken" drive is supposedly "brand new", and was also the latest model # and only one I had of that specific, so no fun playing or benching it either

What a fun way to start the day... now not only am I 1 drive short of 24 6Gb/s drives, I'm now 1 drive short of 4 12Gb/s drives.

ARGH!@

 

[T_Minus]

While in CentOS I figure I'll check out the next batch of 200GB HGST... they're already 512 and figure i'll do a full format in linux to just see how that goes compared to Windows. Start 1 drive, insert 2nd and upon inserting 2nd I get an error... Just my luck, controller or cable or something weird going on.

Going to stick with 1 drive at a time again formatting, oh the slowness

 

[Patrick]

Sounds like the SanDisk Lightning II's I have.

 

[T_Minus]

I'm on drive 4 now of the SLC 200GB HGST and doing them 1 by 1 no problems, did a full smart scan on the first couple 0 problems/errors, all have about the same usage *gasp* only 10TBW.


I'm a bit concerned about the 'deal' 12Gb/s HBA showing up with 0 packaging 2 to a flat rate small tiny box with paper folded "flat" but used as a buffer (not)... surprised the heatsinks are still on them!

 

[whitey]

Sounds like a Windows 'feature' hahah...ya lost me at Windows!

Glad you got the ship pointed in the right direction @T_Minus :-D

 

[T_Minus]

Well, out of that HUGE stack of SSD to test only the 1 12Gb/s "NEW" turned out to be 100% DOA, went back via USPS today.
I had one S3500 with 1 relocated sector after numerous tests/benchs no further issues so keeping it since it'll be mirrored, another s3500 tested pretty much 'new' (<70GBW) but was performing ~40MB/s less seq. read, and 80MB/s <higher qd reads... ALL identical writes except 4K Q1T1 was about 10MB/s slower than the rest... updated firmware, rebooted, tested again, rebooted, tested again, secure erased, over ~4 times of 'cleaning' drive, letting set, re-benching, EXACT same results. Not sure why this one is going a little slower but it'll be fine for a mirrored OS drive