HP ML350 G5 not detecting Ultrium 448 SAS tape drive

[Will Fox]

Hi,

I have a HP ML350 G5 running Windows 2008 with an Ultrium 448 SAS tape drive connected to the recommended HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter using the cables provided with the tape drive.

During the initial boot [HP screen and BIOS messages] the tape drive isn't detected.

The host bus adapter is detected in PCI slot 6 and says that it has no connected devices.

The tape drive is also not detected in device manager or in Symantec Backup Exec.

I have tried using different cables and also a different tape drive, both to no avail.

I doubt both sets of cables/both drives are both faulty - that seems too farfetched as they're both brand new.

I have also tried another host bus adapter although don't think that's faulty anyway as it is picked up in PCI slot 6, and similarly doubt it's a faulty PCI slot as if it were it wouldn't pick up the card.

Again, no luck.

Any ideas anybody?

Thanks,

Will

[Curtis Ballard]

The BIOS message for the SC44Ge doesn't list tape devices by default. To see if the controller is communicating with the tape drive you need to go into the BIOS setup. There is an option that can enable reporting all devices but the default setting is to only report bootable devices.

[Will Fox]

Hi,

I had since found an article explaining the same thing but thanks for the info.

This hasn't happened before - presumably HP have made a change recently.

Many thanks.

[Will Fox]

Gone into SAS configuration utility, already set to display all adapters and devices but clicked save, exit and reboot anyway and it has now solved the issue.

Strange one but resolved nonetheless.