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Wipe SAS Hard Drive?
I had to recently replace a Cheetah serial attached SCSI hard drive from my Exchange server. I would like to wipe the drive before returning to Dell but I cannot insert the drive into a SATA desktop because the connector has a plastic piece built onto it. Any suggestions on how to attach this hard drive onto another machine to zero it out?
theflash1932
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November 2nd, 2010 14:00
To clear the foreign config ... in OMSA, go to Storage, PERC, Information/Configuration (link at top of page), then from drop down select Clear Foreign (or Foreign Config Options, then Clear). The the drive will show as READY ... you can then "wipe" it.
The cable ... I really don't understand the point of this cable. It appears, at first, to be a cable to connect a SAS drive to a machine that doesn't normally support SAS, but it has a molex connector. The power and data cables for SATA and SAS are the same, minus the "keying", so it has the SATA connector but why the heck the molex on it?? If the systemboard has a SATA connector, the power supply would have (should have) a SATA power connector. Anyway ... if it will work for your workstation's setup, then you should be able to use it.
EWeiner72
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November 2nd, 2010 13:00
Thank you for the response!
I added the old drive to an empty slot. It did indeed show as foreign under physical disks in the open manage server administrator. However, my only options were to blink or unblink the drive. The only place I see the option to delete is under virtual disk but that will delete the entire raid set I think. This drive was my OS partition so it is a two drive set raid 1 (mirror)
Any idea if this would work?:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cables/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A1289251&~ck=dellSearch&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=7
theflash1932
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November 2nd, 2010 13:00
I didn't see your picture til just now ... SAS drives are "keyed" so that a one-piece connector is required to fit it. This prevents the two-piece connections for SATA from being connected to a SAS drive, because SATA controllers do not support SAS. SAS controllers can support both SAS and SATA. If you look at a SATA drive, a one-piece connector will also fit it.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://serialstoragewire.net/images/articles/it24fig1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://serialstoragewire.net/Articles/2007_07/itinsights24.html&usg=__2_EFodR3b_0yeHEZXJ0jzlloYRI=&h=305&w=454&sz=25&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=SLogAV9R_lvIsM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=211&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsata%2Bconnector%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26biw%3D1332%26bih%3D755%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=606&vpy=460&dur=1211&hovh=184&hovw=274&tx=101&ty=140&ei=k2PQTKDePI6ksQOx5KSYAg&oei=k2PQTKDePI6ksQOx5KSYAg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0
theflash1932
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November 2nd, 2010 13:00
SAS will support SATA, but SATA will not support SAS, so you would not be able to put a SAS drive into a SATA device (I.e. desktop PC). Do you have an open slot on your Exchange server (or another server)? So long as you have already rebuilt the replacement drive, if you put this one back in, it will show as Foreign. Clear the foreign config, then format or zero it out from there. This will not affect your existing array (provided you select the right disk to zero out and the replacement has already been rebuilt). The only other thing you can do is get a PCI() SAS controller and cable to put into a desktop to format it.
EWeiner72
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November 2nd, 2010 13:00
EWeiner72
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November 3rd, 2010 08:00
In the Foreign Config Options, I only get the option to import/recover the drive, and that wizard fails. I think this may be because this bay is not configured as part of my array. However, when I add the drive back to its original bay, it automatically tries to start rebuilding. Once I cancel the rebuild, the drive only shows offline and none of the foreign options are available to me. :emotion-7:
EWeiner72
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November 3rd, 2010 08:00
Yes I had already replaced the drive and rebuilt.
I just put the drive into an empty bay on another server here (one of my file servers) and I was able to execute the steps exactly as you laid them out. I was able on that server to clear the foreign config and the drive is now being erased. Problem solved.
Thank you!
:emotion-2:
theflash1932
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November 3rd, 2010 08:00
That's why I said "if the replacement has already been rebuilt" :) If you have not already rebuilt the drive that replaced the one going back to Dell, then, yes, it will want to rebuild it. If you are sending this one back to Dell, then you should already have its replacement. Put it in and rebuild. Once the array is healthy, then put that bad drive in.