Replace Dead drive on 650F

Question

Hi,

We are trying to replace a dead drive on a PowerVault 650F, in a system we have inherited... we stuck in a replacement drive and now get a "drive unformated" fault... how do we format it and get the LUN up again? This drive was part of a RAID 5 LUN.

Thanks,

Dennis Morgan

DELL-Carl · Answer

Dennis, A drive will show as 'unformatted' in a 650 F if the drive is configured with 512/Bytes per Sector. Fibre-Channel Drives in the DELL PowerVault systems are configured with 520 Bytes/Sector when used in RAID Configurations. Fibre-Channel drives used in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives) are configured with 512 Bytes/Sector. The drives are not interchangeable and will appear as Unformatted when used in the incorrect configuration. Verify the drive is actually 520 bytes per sector. There is no way to reformat the drive to 520 bytes per sector in the field.

raiched · Answer

OK what do you mean we can't do it in the field? Is there a way to format disks short of sending them into Dell or purchaseing them from dell? Thanks,

Dev Mgr · Answer

Perform a search on the boards for 520 bytes/sector. There is some site where using a serial connection (I think it will require a reboot of the PV650) you can get into a menu where you can format the drive. I'd highly recommend having fully tested backups of all your data, just in case you select the wrong option and it formats more than you bargained for.

Alternatively, just buy a PV650 FC drive (or EMC FC-series drive) that is pre-formatted as 520.

tommo666 · Answer

I'm sure there is a way to format a drive through FCLI, link http://www.hecomputing.org/?page_id=18   Also seagate enterprise tools can format to 529 sector if you can find a copy.

PowerVault

Replace Dead drive on 650F

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