Need Help For Hard Drive Seagate Cheetah 15k.5 ST3300655SS

[alphabike]

Dear HDDGuru Community,
many thanks in advance for this very good web community, I am here for ask your help about my hard drives.

I just bought a lot of Seagate Cheetah 15k.5 SAS ST3300655SS 300GB, but I have the same problem with all of them.

In Windows Disk Managment, I can't do initialization of any disks, when I try to create a partion it say me I/O Error or Disk not ready.(all disks the same error).
I can say that all disks are certified by NEC Vendor Company as showed by all disks.
I use a controller SAS Dell 6 I/R model UCS-61, I haven't problem with dell and HP certified hdd drives(but Still Seagate drive models)

I think it is a Controller SAS problem, that can't recognize any disks. So, I already tried to upgrade the firmware of my controller SAS, but anything is changed.

I tried also to install Dell Seagate firmware for model ST3300655SS, But it say me "System not compatible" (tested on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003).
My pc is not a server or workstation, maybe this is the problem...I'm using a motherboard ABIT IX38 Quad GT with controller DELL.

I think is a problem of firmware disks, so my controller can't do initialization and create partion of any disks of this model ST3300655SS (Certified by NEC as said before).


What you can suggest to me? - I need a solution, I have many disks of this model.


Many thanks in advance.

[scratchy]

They may be formatted to non standard bps can you post a photo of the label on one of the drives? Also, what model is your sas controller ?

Are you familiar with Linux?

[alphabike]

They may be formatted to non standard bps can you post a photo of the label on one of the drives? Also, what model is your sas controller ?

Are you familiar with Linux?

This is the label of one disks, they are all identics.

As said before my controller DELL model UCS-61 SAS 6/ir, mounted on a classic motherboard Abit Quad IX38

Please help me , I have more than 100 disks to save!

Thanks

Attachments

[data-medics]

It could be just a sector size issue. Perhaps they are from a SAN running 520-byte sectors instead of 512. If so, you can likely re-format them to 512 using SG3_Utils and the sg_format command.

I'd check that before trying to change the FW version or anything like that.

[alphabike]

It could be just a sector size issue. Perhaps they are from a SAN running 520-byte sectors instead of 512. If so, you can likely re-format them to 512 using SG3_Utils and the sg_format command.

I'd check that before trying to change the FW version or anything like that.

Can you show me how to do this procedure?

This need to be done on Linux or Windows? Actually I have SAS controller driver only for Windows, but my controller can support also RedHat Linux(dell SAS 6 i/r)

I/O error on initialization can be resolved with sg3_utils?

Thanks

[fzabkar]

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35283

[MyKey]

HDD is a Seagate firmware version. The NEC label is usually for warranty purposes. If this is going into a Dell MD3000 then read the notice in MD3000-MD3000i-HDD_fw_A09_R273065.

ST3300655SS:
1. Flash "Seagate_ST3300655SS_b525.df" file
2. Then flash "Seagate_ST3300655SS_15kfp525.df" file
3. Then flash "Seagate_ST3300655SS_S52A.df" file
4. Done!

You can still get these updates. Anyhow just for your information.

[alphabike]

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35283

Thanks for helping, but I'm very bad on Linux systems. So I just tried Windows Version of Sg3_utils. When I open Sg_format.exe
It give me a list of commands, but I don't see the list of the hard drives to format.
What is the procedure?

[data-medics]

I've never attempted to use SG3_Utils for Windows, but if it's like other hard drive utilities, it probably can't do 90% of its functions in Windows.

Just boot the computer to some variant of Debian Linux, don't worry about drivers Linux will just work with the card. There a plenty of free live builds such as Knoppix, Sparky, Parrot, etc. that can be booted from a USB or DVD.

Connect the drive to a non-RAID SAS card (with extra emphasis on NON-RAID!!!).

Then do this in terminal:

sudo apt-get install lsscsi (this will install a tool to list the drives)
sudo apt-get install sg3-utils (this will install sg3-utils)
sudo lsscsi (this will list your drives)
sudo sg_format --format --size=512 /dev/sda (adjust the "/sda" part to what your SAS drive actually is)

[alphabike]

I've never attempted to use SG3_Utils for Windows, but if it's like other hard drive utilities, it probably can't do 90% of its functions in Windows.

Just boot the computer to some variant of Debian Linux, don't worry about drivers Linux will just work with the card. There a plenty of free live builds such as Knoppix, Sparky, Parrot, etc. that can be booted from a USB or DVD.

Connect the drive to a non-RAID SAS card (with extra emphasis on NON-RAID!!!).

Then do this in terminal:

sudo apt-get install lsscsi (this will install a tool to list the drives)
sudo apt-get install sg3-utils (this will install sg3-utils)
sudo lsscsi (this will list your drives)
sudo sg_format --format --size=512 /dev/sda (adjust the "/sda" part to what your SAS drive actually is)

Yes, windows can't do these commands! I just solved by CentOS Linux. Now one disk work!! Many many Thanks!!!
I will try with other disks, but I have to bought another cable for do it 4 disks at time(my card support max 4 disks). Procedure take 1 hour, in this way I can have 4 disks formatted in 1 hour.
How is the command for do it on multiple disks?

Which is the best smart utility for SAS? (I tried HDDScan and HDTune, but smart it's not complete as for SATA drives).

Many thanks!

[scratchy]

You can either write a bash to do it or simpler is to open a new terminal window for each drive, they will run in parallel as the work is done by the hard drive.

[scratchy]

... something you may need to check is the drives read correctly. I would verify that you can read and write more than one sector at a time as some of the vendors set a flag somewhere that disables multiple block reads/writes if block size is altered.

[alphabike]

... something you may need to check is the drives read correctly. I would verify that you can read and write more than one sector at a time as some of the vendors set a flag somewhere that disables multiple block reads/writes if block size is altered.

Before everything, Many thanks for your interest in my case.

I just did error scan with HDTUNE and HDDSCAN Butterfly SCAN for check blocks time, it works

I just found HDDSCAN that is the only software that give me a SMART check for SAS drives, no info with HDTune or CrystaldiskInfo.

Is there a better software for SMART Check?

I don't know how to do your test. Also, can you write me an example of commad for do a multiple format for each drive? I just bought another cable for format 4 disks at same time.

Thanks

[fzabkar]

Smartmontools (smartctl) can retrieve "SMART" information from SAS HDDs.

[alphabike]

Smartmontools (smartctl) can retrieve "SMART" information from SAS HDDs.

thanks I just seen I will add in my programs with HDDSCAN(also it good).

[alphabike]

... something you may need to check is the drives read correctly. I would verify that you can read and write more than one sector at a time as some of the vendors set a flag somewhere that disables multiple block reads/writes if block size is altered.

What about this test? - I tried to write on disk and it looks fast without errors. - What test need to be done for check flags? What they do on disk?

I have to format and check so many disks, so I want to do a good procedure after formatted them, I will do smart and error scan check. it's enough?


Thanks to you.