Robin Bowes wrote: > Hi, > > I've got a Compaq U2 storage array connected to a Compaw Smart 2/p > controller with an assortment of 4.3GB and 9.1GB disks that I use for > testing purposes. > > Some of the drives have "died" on me, i.e. I get yellow lights when they > are plugged into the arrays. > > Is it possible to do anything low-level to ressurect these drives? e.g. > take them out of their caddies, connected them directly to a SCSI > controller and low-level format them or something? > > (There's no data on them - I just want them to work again!) > > Any suggestions appreciated. Robin, You may like to fetch sg3_utils and try sg_format thus: sg_format /dev/sda assuming a disk you have fetched from the array is placed at /dev/sda . If that fails, the disk is probably dead. Otherwise it should tell you several things (and doesn't change anything). Often drives in RAIDs are formatted to a sector size slightly greater than 512 bytes. To re-use the disk (freestanding) in linux you will need to format it back 512 bytes thus: sg_format --format --size=512 /dev/sda A format may not be needed. In any case, the next step would usually be to partition the disk (e.g. with fdisk) then make a file system on one or more of its partitions (e.g. with mkfs.ext3 ). The disk (or at least its partition) should then be ready to mount and use. Doug Gilbert - : send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
