Problem after Low-Level Formating a SCSI drive

[Wesley W.D. Summers]

I low-level formatted a SCSI drive in a ProLiant 5500 according to procedure described in another thread (http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=594772).

This consisted of an Unconditional Format, followed by 4 passes of the Surface Scan.

The Unconditional Format worked fine, as did the first 2 passes of the Surface Scan. In the third pass, the drive failed a Read/Compare test.

Now, when the ProLiant 5500 boots, the drive is shown as "FAILED" after the scan for SCSI devices.

When I go into the display of SCSI devices that can be formatted, the drive comes up as 0GB (Zero GB), rather than its actual size of 4.3GB. Other drives are shown correctly.

I have tried to rerun the Unconditional Format, but it seems to know the Drive is in a FAILED state, so doesn't seem to try to reformat it.

I believe the drive is servicable, because the Surface scan ran twice before any error was encountered.

Is there any way I can get the Unconditional Format to run again?

Do I need to get the drive to appear as a 4.3GB drive first - If so, how?


Thanks in anticipation, Wesley.

[Leonard Davison]

Hmmmm..

I suspect with a drive that age, it may have gone away. Have you tried it in a different slot?

What prompted the LLF anyway? Were you having problems with it?

[SAKET_5]

Hey Wesley,

Interesting. I participated in your last thread. Curious, so would check with you on a few queries:

1. Have you tried connecting the same drive to a different controller (different server)? Is this just one controller which marks the drive as failed?

2. Have you tried different slot?

3. Have you tried re-seating the drive?

4. Have you tried a hard power reset (shut down the server, take the power cables off and then connect and power the server back)?

5. Could you try a firmware upgrade on the drive? If you could this would indicate that the device is still responsive to flash programming, otherwise it should be safe to asume that the device is completely dead.

6. I know this is not an option but again I would be tempted to run a badblocks linux test on this drivE. This should tell you exactly whats going on.

Anyway, hope you get further with this.

Good luck!

[Wesley W.D. Summers]

Dear Saket,

Thanks for your suggestions. These are my answers:

1 - No. I have the options of another ProLiant 5500 as well as a different controller card in either of the servers.

2 - Yes, tried a number of slots.

3 - Yes, because of my answer to 2 above.

4 - All but removing the Power cords from the Power Supplies. I understand why you have siggested this.

5 - Happy to try a Firmware upgrade, but I have no idea where to get one from. Can anyone reading this point me to where I can get firmware for Compaq 4.3GB Hot Swap drives?

6 - Sorry, still no Linux machine. However, I have a Macintosh I could put it in. This MIGHT help, as I have seen it solve Drive Recognition problems previously.


What I will try:
(A) - Put the drive into another ProLiant, and try to format it. This should address issues 1, 2, 3 & 4 above.

(B) - If I can get information on Firmware upgrading, I would try this next. Failinf any input, I would go to step (C).

(B) - If (A) doesn't work, I will try the Mactintosh.

I will assign points after I see if any of these solve the problem.


Regards, Wesley.

[Wesley W.D. Summers]

The SCSI Drive Firmware upgrade is available from:
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/16132.html


Regards, Wesley.

[SAKET_5]

Hi Wesley,

Did you manage to get the firmware upgraded on the drive?

I believe, it would tell us if the drive is completely dead or something else.

Interested to hear your results:)

Good luck!

[Wesley W.D. Summers]

Dear Saket,

I tried the drive on the other ProLiant 5500 I have, but no luck.

I ended up getting the firmware for all drives from:
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/15054.html

The previous URL was only for certain drives, to fix a specific problem.

After upgrading my 33 hard drives, including the one that is causing me problems, I have found that the problem has NOT been resolved, but I have more information.

I now know that the drive:
1 - has some how had S.M.A.R.T. turned OFF
Information from the Array Diagnostic software when I connected the drive to a Smart Array 3200 controller.

2 - is NOT visible to the ROMPaq software, so CAN'T be updated
After upgrading ALL drives, I thought I had better check. By removing all except the Faulty drive, I found that the ROMPaq software thought there were NO drives connected to any SCSI bus.

3 - size is 0MB (See INSPECT output below)
----- INSPECT output
Embedded Wide -Ultra SCSI Controller, IRQ5
Device . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 MB S.M.A.R.T. SCSI Disk
SCSI ID . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Revision . . . . . . . . . . . 1.52
Model Number . . . . . . . . . COMPAQ WDE4360S
Drive capacity (blocks) . . . 0
Drive geometry (Cyl, Hds, Sec) 0, 64, 32

4 - fails to respond to the SCSI 'Start Unit' command (See the Sense Code output below)
----- SENSE Code output
21:53:42
Error 6536-12
0 MB S.M.A.R.T. SCSI Disk, SCSI ID 1, LUN 0, Embedded Controller
SCSI Disk - Failed S.M.A.R.T. Test
Drive not ready
SCSI sense bytes follow:
70 00 02 00 00 00 00 18 ff ff ff ff 31 01 00 00 00 00 00 ff

I don't know if this helps anyone figure out what my problem is, but I'm happy to try anything else anyone can suggest.

In the mean time, I will try connecting it to my Macintosh. Howver, I don't know how that is going to resolve S.M.A.R.T. being turned off.


Regards, Wesley.

[SAKET_5]

Hey Wesley,

So, the device is still responsive. But, it seems it is suffering from unrecoverable corruption/errors. Otherwise, how could you still reprogram its fw but the utilities don't detect its correct size or the controllers dont detect it!

S.M.A.R.T was turned off..strange but that would have meant that you wont get the predictive monitoring reports, riit? Still doesnt explain the size or the detection problem. I wonder, if you would be interested in applying the S.M.A.R.T fix available on the HP web site to the drive.

Just on an unrelated note, now that we strongly seem to arrive at the conclusion that this disk had it and its time we say goodbye to it and send it to HP for replacement; is this not an option?

Let me know if you need more info on S.M.A.R.T patch for the disk.

Regards,

[Wesley W.D. Summers]

Dear Sakat,

I'm happy to try the S.M.A.R.T. fix. Where would I find it?

As far as throwing the drive away, I'm stubborn. I worked until I ran the unconditional format. If the sequential reads was enough to kill it, then so be it. But if it works in my Macintosh, I'm NOT giving up yet!


Regards, Wesley.

[Prashant (I am Back)]

HI,

Have we tried the M&P Patch for the server and see any changes on you drive. Well it feels good you are trying you best to resolve the problem.

Regards,
Prashant S.