“!!WARNING!!
The software and information in this article could be data destructive and/or render your hard drive inoperable if not followed carefully. It is always recommended to keep a backup of critical data.

This article applies to the following models:

Please verify your drive model number, serial number, and firmware revision using the Drive Detect software.

* Note: If your drive has CC or LC firmware, your drive is not affected and no further action is required. Attempting to flash the firmware of a drive with CC or LC firmware will result in rendering your drive inoperable.

The firmware update for drives indicated as “In Validation” means the update is currently in testing and should be available soon.

Click  to subscribe to the Seagate support site, to be notified when your update is validated and becomes available.”

The command set is defined as an ANSI specification, and utilizes the SCSI commands to obtain configuration information for the enclosure as well as reprogram it to light external indicator LEDs or audible alarms to inform the user about the health and maintenance information for attached RAID controllers and disk drives.

An enclosure services device (circuit board with CPU) typically manages all these enclosure elements (fans, power supplies, etc…) and communicates with the processor via application software. 

Note that the “SCSI” in SCSI Enclosure Services refers to the protocol, and not any type of physical connection.  Enclosures that connect via Fibre Channel and SAS cabling are classified as SCSI devices. They speak the SCSI command set, and use a serial SCSI interface. Traditional “SCSI” disk drives also use the SCSI protocol, but use parallel SCSI connectors.

SES devices will generally have the ability to flash firmware updates, but the mechanism for doing this is sometimes vendor/product specific.

ANSI-Defined SES Element Types and Description Table

Below is a table from the ANSI SES programming specification which shows how one might package the bytes to control aspects of a device.  We will send a harmless command which will enable the fault light for a device in a particular slot. Every element type has a different 4-byte structure and options, so you should consult either the ANSI programming specification or your particular vendor’s documentation.  Remember, an enclosure manufacturer is free to not support certain functions as well as add vendor-unique functionality.

To enable the request fault light, we must set bit 5 in byte #3 (i.e., 20 hex), so the wwxxyy sequence must be 000020.

As we are controlling the device element, we must send a 01 to indicate a disk device.  For our example, we’ll select the third device in the enclosure (corresponding to element # 2).

Put it all together, and you would send out -EP20102000020.

If we were to send out -EP20102000200, this will turn off the fault light, but turn on the identify light (assuming one exists).  Note that the fault light goes off because byte 3 (the yy field) has all zeros in it.  The SES enclosure will stay in whatever state you put it in, until either the enclosure decides to override that state or power is reset to the enclosure.  Everything is volatile.  (There may be some exceptions for vendor-unique SES elements).

In general, don’t bother calling Seagate, WD, or any of the other drive vendors and ask them for the firmware update.  Unless somebody posts otherwise, it is almost onheard of that they will just send it to you.   You typically need to get that from the company that sold you the hardware.

Helpful places to look

• Support blog sites from high-volume PC resellers who purchase disks directly from the manufacturer
• Use your favorite search engine. You might get lucky.
• Contact a company that sells the products that are in need of a firmware update.  They may not be able to legally send you the firmware update, but I am sure for a fee they would be glad to work something out.

Once you have the firmware image (make darned sure it is the right image, as it is possible to turn your peripheral into a paperweight.

WARNINGS:

• Some firmware updates may reformat the disk, which will destroy all data.  Always read release notes. If you do not have the release notes, then think again about your motivation to update the firmware. Remember the old adage, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.
• Firmware updates nearly always change mode page settings, so you should save the mode pages before you flash updates, then restore them.

I have gotten a great deal of calls from people who bought used EMC or NetApp gear at a great price on EBAY and were disheartened to find out that their Windows(R) or LINUX(R) computer can’t see the disks.

Conversely, I have gotten calls from people who wanted to get their off-the-shelf Seagate disk to work in an OEM RAID array in order to save a lot of money and not buy the disks that the manufacturer sells.

If you wan’t to get an off-the-shelf disk drive to work in an EMC, NetApp, or one of several other vendors arrays, then forget it.  Not only do they use a different block size, but they have special firmware on the disks that you can’t legally obtain.

Use smartmon-ux -capacitybs NewBytesPerBlock to change the block size to what you desire.

See the smartmon manual, or click here to open the change block size manual page directly.

Warnings & Caveats

• Once the block size is successfully changed, you need to power cycle the disk drive and use the -format command to complete the operation.  You can not use the disk drive until you reformat it.
• RAID subsystem manufacturers have little motivation for allowing end-users to add their own disk drives. This isn’t just for financial reasons, but for data integrity and reliability concerns.  Furthermore, RAID subsystem manufacturers invest a significant amount of R&D in having customized drive firmware.  As such, even if you take an off-the-shelf disk drive, and change the blocks size and all of the mode page settings to get it to match your RAID vendor’s disk drive, then the RAID engine may still reject the disk.
• SANtools is bound by numerous non-disclosure arrangements and we will not provide any advice relating to how one might reprogram or reformat a disk so you can get it to work in a specific RAID subsystem.
• Let’s say that you have the opposite problem.  You purchased used disk drives and it turns out that you can’t format them because they aren’t formatted to 512 bytes/block. You still have risk that the firmware on those disk drives will reject commands to change the block size.  It is not uncommon to have disk drives with specialized firmware that prevents you from changing the block size.   If the disk rejects the -capacitybs command, then the only way to change the block size is to flash new firmware on the disk drive. (Not just new firmware, but the correct firmware file)  As your disk drive firmware isn’t our intellectual property, we are morally and legally prevented from sending anybody firmware.
• The bottom line is that some disk/firmware combinations let you change the block size, and some don’t. If your disk rejects the -capacitybs command, then you must call your drive supplier/vendor, and ask them about getting some firmware that will let you change the block size.
• Changing the block size will also change the usable number of blocks, and destroy all of your data.

Why you might want to do this …

• You have some older equipment running an operating system such as VMS, or certain RAID controllers that have an upper limit on the maximum disk size which they support.
• You want to be really sneaky and hide information on a disk drive.   (Once you resize the disk, the “hidden” area is hidden from everything, including low-level formats, partition managers, and anti virus software).
• You are trying to mirror disk drives, and while they are both advertised to be 146GB large, they have a slightly different number of total blocks.   As such, some RAID software won’t let you mirror the two drives.

Security warning — If you do not want to risk data theft, you should always insure that the disks in your storage farm report 100% of their actual capacity before running software to view the contents, or run a secure erase.

Use smartmon-ux -capacity n <drivelist> to set reported number of blocks

Other info:

• Reformatting is not necessary after changing capacity.  Data is preserved once you restore the hidden area.
• Even USB flash memory capacity can be changed with smartmon-ux, so you could add two partitions on a USB stick, hide stuff in the 2nd partition, then change capacity as needed to make the partition invisible.
• smartmon-ux -capacity 0 resizes the disk to factory default, and exposes all hidden areas to insure that somebody isn’t trying to hide anything.
• More details on usage at http://www.santools.com/smart/unix/manual