How to wipe a power edge t420, 4 array SCSI drive set

Hi @rosmersc,

There is no preferred way of wiping data. When you create RAID on the PERC, it will prompt if you need to initialize the new RAID creation, just check it and when the process of creation is finished, the PERC will wipe all data on the disk. 

I’ve tried to initialize the disks.

I created a RAID-0, and put four disks in together. I did a slow-init.

It still isn’t wiping it, when I try to create a new virtual disk. It only creates a 500GB disk when it’s suppose to be creating a 1TB disk. This is raid-5, its only creating a 500GB instead of the 1TB is had when I got the machine

Hello rosmersc,

What is the capacity of the individual hard drives?

Are they all the same SAS or SATA? You cannot mix those in the same array.

Did you use all four drives in the RAID 0 and what size was the array capacity then? 2TB?  (if they are 500G drives)

After you created RAID0 and slow init; Did you delete the array?

When you create RAID5 do you use all four drives?  The resulting size should be 1.5TB (if they are 500G drives)

Try this in order:

In the controller Delete array.

Shut down, remove all drives

Boot into controller and reset configuration

Shut down and insert drives

Boot into controller and create RAID5

How would I clear the existing configuration? 

Hi did you follow the instruction that Chris has given you yet?

I have not as I’m at work, I was asking how do I clear the current configuration?

Hi @rosmersc,

You can refer to page 48 on how to clear configuration (Deleting Virtual Disks)  https://dell.to/3lKzrzd but make sure the data in the VD is not needed. 

They’re SAS-SCSI.

*3 600 GB Drives

1 146GB drive

when i try to create a raid 0 or 5 it limits the max size I can make the VD to 500GB.

Fantastic, that’s my problem.

how can I use that smallest 125GB SAS drive and still get 1.5TB on a raid array?

Hi @rosmersc,

Unfortunately, creating logical RAID array (virtual disk), you must use similar size drives. Hence, you will not be able to use the smaller space disk size together with larger space disk size.