SSD Intel DC S4500 1.92TB recognized but cannot be formated

[loicl]

Hi,

I have 2 Intel SSD DC S400 of 1.92TB that are HPE branded, they seems to both have the firmware HPG2. They are both recognized by windows/linux with the correct capacity but i cannot check any smart or anything as i don't have a hp server on hand currently and they have hp firmware that strip out all these informations, but i believe they don't have hardware issues. Apparently there is an issue with the firmware of these drive, so i tried to update them with HPG5 or HPG3 to see if it would solve the issue, but the the updater refuse to flash them on windows and the linux utility tells me it will do deffered flash after reboot, but  it never does it.

Obviously, they are not under warranty anymore and i cannot create a case with HPE without having a valid warranty. But i doubt they would replace them anyway even though it's clearly a firmware issue

So if anyone has any ideas on how to make these drives work again, let me know.

Thanks,

[loicl]

I used the intel-cli tool to check the drive, here is the info it gives: 

-1 Intel SSD DC S4500 Series PHYS738101XD1P9DGN-

Capacity : 1920,38 GB

DevicePath : /dev/sgl

DeviceStatus : *BAD_CONTEXT_2020 PG

Firmware : 4IYVHPG2

FirmwareUpdateAvailable:Please contact Intel Customer Support for further assistance at the following website: http://www.intel.com/go/ssdsupport

Index : 1

MaximumLBA:3750748847

Model Number : VK001920GWJPH

Percent@verProvisioned : Property not found

ProductFamily : Intel SSD DC S4500 Series

SMARTEnabled : True

SectorDataSize: 512

The BAD_CONTEXT_2020 really make me think it's a software (most likely firmware issue) as in the changelog of one of the intel firmware for this ssd it clearly state "BAD_CONTEXT_2020 issue fix " also when i try to do anything from this utility on the drive it says : "selected drive is in a disabled logical state" 

[SanjeevGoyal]

Hello,

I would suggest connect with the both the HPE server with SA controller.

I hope the below customer advisory will help you to update the firmware.

Advisory: HPE Solid State Drives - Certain Intel S4500 and S4600 Series Drives May Fail to Update From HPG1 or HPG2 to HPG3(C) When Attached to HPE Smart Array Gen10 Controllers

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-a00067666en_us

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   
Regards,

[loicl]

Hi,

thanks  for your answer

I don't have an hp server gen 10 on hand currently as i said, but it wouldn't help anyway as stated : "This only affects SSDs that are in a RAID set. SSD drives that are configured for HBA mode will update properly." and they are not in any raid configuration, they are in hba in the server i put them in and it also state : "Scope :Any of the following S4500 and S4600 Series SSD models attached to HPE Smart Array Gen10 controllers".

looks like the issue is something from this advisory : https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-a00072768en_us

Thanks,

[SanjeevGoyal]

Hello,

We can help if the drive connected with the HPE server with HPE smart array controller.

I have already shared customer advisory, you can try to update the firmware.

Thank you for your post on HPE community support.

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   

Regards,

[loicl]

Hello,

The problem is not an issue with hp raid or not, it has been tried to update the firmwares on a gen 10 server with last spp applied, it didn't work either, same deffered flash thing happen and it never flash the drives on reboot. That's why i got these drives home and trying to fix them on non hp hardware, the firmware is having an issue and it refuse to take the flash, it's probably in a weird state and there is probably a way to fix it, but that would require out of the box thinking i imagine, but i was thinking someone at HPE must have looked for a way to fix the drive having the issue from the advisory i linked above, and if not possible i would expect HPE to extend the warranty of the drives touched by the issues...

Anyway, looks like you're not really willing to help, which is ok i imagine considering i'm not using the drives on hp hardware.

Thanks for answering anyway, 

Regards

[loicl]

Hi,

Coming back on this subject, i was able to get my hands on an hp dl380p g8 with a p420i Smart array controller on firmware 8.0 (which is the latest available in the SPP). So thought i will use it to update the firmware on these drive, so went on support website to download the latest HPG5 firmware, put the drives in the server, installed ESXI and tried to update... and :

Online HDD/SSD Flash Component for VMware ESXi - VK000240GWJPD, VK000480GWJPE, VK000960GWJPF, VK001920GWJPH, VK003840GWJPK, MK000240GWKVK, MK000480GWJPN, MK000960GWJPP and MK001920GWJPQ Drives (HPG5), searching...
1) VK001920GWJPH Drive 1I:0:7 (Smart Array P420i in Slot 0) (HPG2)
2) VK001920GWJPH Drive 1I:0:8 (Smart Array P420i in Slot 0) (HPG2)
Select which devices to flash [#,#-#,(A)ll,(N)one]> A
Flashing Drive 1I:0:7 (Smart Array P420i in Slot 0) [ HPG2 -> HPG5 ]
Command failed
	Device AC:3855155103,PD:2 of type 4 failed BMIC WriteDeferredUpdate
Flashing Drive 1I:0:8 (Smart Array P420i in Slot 0) [ HPG2 -> HPG5 ]
Command failed
	Device AC:3855155103,PD:3 of type 4 failed BMIC WriteDeferredUpdate

So as before they are detected but flash still doesn't work.. any ideas ? i hope this time you will be able to help me since i'm doing everything on HP Servers and raid card

Thanks and Regards,

[rozsnyo]

Hi @loicl .. have you managed to revive these SSDs? We got also a buch of them - S4500, S4510, S4600, ... all having a BAD_CONTEXT failure. The architecture of these is very similar (likely same controller and firmware codebase).

[Sunitha_Mod]

Hello @rozsnyo,

Thank you for writing to us! 

You might want to consider creating a new topic by utilizing the "New Discussion" button, as this will not only enhance visibility compared to the old topic but also boost your chances of receiving responses from experts.

[rozsnyo]

Hello @Sunitha_Mod - I specifically do not want to create a new topic, since my inquiry is specific to the item and issue with the item that is outlined here.

My target is to figure out, if they original poster got its issue resovled (that is - how likely is, that HPE can actually fix the issue), and secondly, If there is a chance, that our lab could get hold of the broken SSD of the original poster.

There is a huge problem with SSDs today, and we are seeing a total incompetence from vendors that push their custom firmware on a rebranded drive, often leading to "impossiblity to recover". We mostly focus on Intel made drives, which this is - and as a electronic lab - we really do not believe there is no other way, than to grind the firmware error drive to dust, and buy a new one. I hope you understand our pursuit in figuring out 1) how to recover the drives 2) figure out what the problem is caused by actually (whether incompetent programming skills, very poor hardware quality, or even purposedly dying drives immediately after warranty is gone).