I'm trying to add a 2Tb sas drive to my ML310 G5 with P400 256mb raid controller

[Jimmy Vance]

If the cables look the same, it could be the 460310-b21 is the option part number used to originally order the cable, and the other number is the spare number that is used to order a replacment.

If the SATA drive is recognised, the cable is probably OK, as there isn't a different cable or a controller setting to switch between SATA and SAS.  The only limitiation is that you cannot mix SATA / SAS drives in the same array, You can create an array with SAS, and an additional array with SATA on the same controller.

The F8 prompt for ORCA should appear even if no drives are connected

Were you putting the disks in the same slot, if not maybe a defective drive bay??

Are you sure the SAS disk is good?

[PhilPayne]

Hi Jimmy, to answer all your questions, yes I have tried the SAS drive in the same slot and in other slots to that used by the SATA drive. The SATA drive, a 250gb one, is seen by the P400 controller and the F8 prompt appears in the boot up bios when the SATA drive is in the slot but doesn't appear when the SAS drive is in the slot. The message during bootup is that the controller is trying to initialise the drive but that this fails in the case of the SAS drive and the message reports no drives found.
The SAS drive is second hand bought recently and the person I bought it from says that it was working in their server prior to the motherboard failing.
The drive lights up the two led's at power on green and blue and just prior to the drive failing initialisation, the green led comes on but then this goes out and an amber one is permanently on.

I was about to try and purchase the cable recommended by HP for SAS drives on the ML310 G5 server but is this going to make a difference if the P400 controller can see the sata drive when it's installed?

Thanks Phil.

[Jimmy Vance]

I don't think it is a cable issue, I'd lean towards a bad drive. Unless a drive has been put in an array, the controller will report zero drives during POST

The drive light going amber and staying that way also indicates a defective disk