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SAS card purchase advice

Cysero
Go to solution Solved by LIGISTX,
1 hour ago, Cysero said:

 

Interesting, I was not aware of those extra features and variations. I will do some more research into the models that are available on fleaBay. There is not much of a computer store presence here. The closest dedicated computer store is Novatech which do not deal in second hand goods. Repair shops would be the only option which I will try this week.

For what your doing, you don’t need any of these features, and they don’t really matter for home use. The Dell h310 (in IT mode) will be perfect. It’s what many thousands of unraid and truenas servers have ran for YEARS throughout the community of homelab folks. 

Looking at either

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275199193309?hash=item40132670dd:g:YkIAAOSwh8pisZaR

 

or

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255716106142?epid=5040542546&hash=item3b89de1f9e:g:JiIAAOSwVFtjGcou&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPthDrCaoUWsnYnMpN0At0W1SJvVWLp%2BaSsN999zZb3ZwMfmAYkikpEEGW%2FSvSybk%2BecVZ00WOMXb4w6sDZv8yT8HOmlRTtdrmVuyqwj5RrZtYCxla%2BixPxYDLIM6W1V1m2mrjGV4lL3IcyC34PHmf%2FPnNRT07kuIhjXrlkR18S46hE%2FLlqlU%2FMmV%2BmqmKOc6Y8HJhqV9pb%2BASHcqkJBz%2BI%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8rBneXlYA&autorefresh=true

 

for my office PC/ home server so I can add additional SATA drives. The PC is a Lenovo Thinkstation M93 10A2 SFF. It runs an i7-4790k, 24GB RAM and a GTX 1650. I have installed an IcyDock 6 drive enclosure into the 5.25 inch bay and uprated the power supply to a Silverstone SST-TX700-G. I will continue running Windows 10 on this system then when support ends it may become a dedicated NAS.

 

What are the main differences between these LSI SAS cards? Some are manufactured for other vendors like Dell. Some were manufactured in 2011 while others were manufactured as late as 2016. Not familiar with SAS cards or their different modes. Is there a preference or do they all perform the same?

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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Looks like different vendor but same chiplet cards. They do are not all the same perform, no. Some have onboard RAM for caching purposes + battery backup unit (li-on batteries onboard custom), and such. Fiber ports, and some even more uncommon stuff.

Heavily recommend finding one that's good which does have those, but also has a short boot-up period (because booting up with these things can take LONG), AND finding one that has BOTH SHORT boot and those options is HARD.

They do offer options like staggered spin-up for HDDs, allowing you to relieve the PSU stress from powering up lot of HDDs at once. But like, this is all mostly old gear and one day I walked into a PC store I regular, and they gave an old high end one to me for FREE. The battery and the unit's condition was just a bit old, but still worked... so do your thinking. They ask a lot for those things on flea, when in reality they can be had for far less - insignificant cash.

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6 minutes ago, Cysero said:

Looking at either

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275199193309?hash=item40132670dd:g:YkIAAOSwh8pisZaR

 

or

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255716106142?epid=5040542546&hash=item3b89de1f9e:g:JiIAAOSwVFtjGcou&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPthDrCaoUWsnYnMpN0At0W1SJvVWLp%2BaSsN999zZb3ZwMfmAYkikpEEGW%2FSvSybk%2BecVZ00WOMXb4w6sDZv8yT8HOmlRTtdrmVuyqwj5RrZtYCxla%2BixPxYDLIM6W1V1m2mrjGV4lL3IcyC34PHmf%2FPnNRT07kuIhjXrlkR18S46hE%2FLlqlU%2FMmV%2BmqmKOc6Y8HJhqV9pb%2BASHcqkJBz%2BI%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8rBneXlYA&autorefresh=true

 

for my office PC/ home server so I can add additional SATA drives. The PC is a Lenovo Thinkstation M93 10A2 SFF. It runs an i7-4790k, 24GB RAM and a GTX 1650. I have installed an IcyDock 6 drive enclosure into the 5.25 inch bay and uprated the power supply to a Silverstone SST-TX700-G. I will continue running Windows 10 on this system then when support ends it may become a dedicated NAS.

 

What are the main differences between these LSI SAS cards? Some are manufactured for other vendors like Dell. Some were manufactured in 2011 while others were manufactured as late as 2016. Not familiar with SAS cards or their different modes. Is there a preference or do they all perform the same?

The Dell H310 is a solid option, that is what I use and what I know a lot of other folks use with success.

 

Also, the H310 you linked is already flashed to IT mode which is what you will want/need  to use it as just an HBA and not a hardware RAID card.

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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12 minutes ago, Motifator said:

Looks like different vendor but same chiplet cards. They do are not all the same perform, no. Some have onboard RAM for caching purposes + battery backup unit (li-on batteries onboard custom), and such. Fiber ports, and some even more uncommon stuff.

Heavily recommend finding one that's good which does have those, but also has a short boot-up period (because booting up with these things can take LONG), AND finding one that has BOTH SHORT boot and those options is HARD.

They do offer options like staggered spin-up for HDDs, allowing you to relieve the PSU stress from powering up lot of HDDs at once. But like, this is all mostly old gear and one day I walked into a PC store I regular, and they gave an old high end one to me for FREE. The battery and the unit's condition was just a bit old, but still worked... so do your thinking. They ask a lot for those things on flea, when in reality they can be had for far less - insignificant cash.

 

Interesting, I was not aware of those extra features and variations. I will do some more research into the models that are available on fleaBay. There is not much of a computer store presence here. The closest dedicated computer store is Novatech which do not deal in second hand goods. Repair shops would be the only option which I will try this week.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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1 hour ago, Cysero said:

 

Interesting, I was not aware of those extra features and variations. I will do some more research into the models that are available on fleaBay. There is not much of a computer store presence here. The closest dedicated computer store is Novatech which do not deal in second hand goods. Repair shops would be the only option which I will try this week.

For what your doing, you don’t need any of these features, and they don’t really matter for home use. The Dell h310 (in IT mode) will be perfect. It’s what many thousands of unraid and truenas servers have ran for YEARS throughout the community of homelab folks. 

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/12/2022 at 12:09 AM, LIGISTX said:

For what your doing, you don’t need any of these features, and they don’t really matter for home use. The Dell h310 (in IT mode) will be perfect. It’s what many thousands of unraid and truenas servers have ran for YEARS throughout the community of homelab folks. 

 

Thanks, purchased the Dell H310 and I am now trying to work out how to set it up. It is detected in Windows 10 under device manager but it is not detecting my drives. No idea how to boot into the setup utility to initiate the drives. Tons of information out there to sift through so should get there eventually. So far all I have achieved is taping over the B5 and 6 pins because the H310 disabled my third stick of RAM which is now back in action.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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22 minutes ago, Cysero said:

 

Thanks, purchased the Dell H310 and I am now trying to work out how to set it up. It is detected in Windows 10 under device manager but it is not detecting my drives. No idea how to boot into the setup utility to initiate the drives. Tons of information out there to sift through so should get there eventually. So far all I have achieved is taping over the B5 and 6 pins because the H310 disabled my third stick of RAM which is now back in action.

Are you running it as a RAID controller or an HBA? Do you want to use it just as extra SATA ports, or as a hardware RAID controller which manages the array and presents a managed array to windows? 

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

Are you running it as a RAID controller or an HBA? Do you want to use it just as extra SATA ports, or as a hardware RAID controller which manages the array and presents a managed array to windows? 

I wanted the extra SATA ports so I could connect enough drives so I could mirror my data in a RAID setup so I think the second option is what I'm going for.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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9 hours ago, Cysero said:

I wanted the extra SATA ports so I could connect enough drives so I could mirror my data in a RAID setup so I think the second option is what I'm going for.

What do you want handling the array? The RAID card, windows storage spaces, motherboard (probably worst option)? 
 

If the second option, did you buy a card that is flashed to IT mode? If so, it no longer will function as a RAID card and you should see the drives in windows once booted. If it is still functioning as a RAID card, you need to boot into the TAID cards bios and set up the array (honestly, never done this, not sure what keyboard key will get you into it, but google should be able to tell you).

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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10 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

What do you want handling the array? The RAID card, windows storage spaces, motherboard (probably worst option)? 
 

If the second option, did you buy a card that is flashed to IT mode? If so, it no longer will function as a RAID card and you should see the drives in windows once booted. If it is still functioning as a RAID card, you need to boot into the TAID cards bios and set up the array (honestly, never done this, not sure what keyboard key will get you into it, but google should be able to tell you).

RAID card I should think. If I use Windows storage spaces then if I change OS down the line I will need to set up the array again I'm guessing?

 

I'm not sure how you tell it is in IT mode but the listing below said it was in IT mode. I haven't worked out how to boot to the RAID cards BIOS. The Dell support page says Ctrl + R at boot but it doesn't work (presumably because it's not being booted in a Dell desktop). It doesn't show as a bootable device in the Lenovo BIOS but the card is detected in Windows 10 device manager and it is flashing green which is promising. I'm not convinced it will boot in a non-Dell desktop with Dell firmware?

 

image.thumb.png.5c540dd125245bbdc8b43b85d1debdeb.png

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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2 hours ago, Cysero said:

RAID card I should think. If I use Windows storage spaces then if I change OS down the line I will need to set up the array again I'm guessing?

 

I'm not sure how you tell it is in IT mode but the listing below said it was in IT mode. I haven't worked out how to boot to the RAID cards BIOS. The Dell support page says Ctrl + R at boot but it doesn't work (presumably because it's not being booted in a Dell desktop). It doesn't show as a bootable device in the Lenovo BIOS but the card is detected in Windows 10 device manager and it is flashing green which is promising. I'm not convinced it will boot in a non-Dell desktop with Dell firmware?

 

image.thumb.png.5c540dd125245bbdc8b43b85d1debdeb.png

That card is in IT mode, which means it will not function as a RAID card, but it will be an HBA. This means if you plug drives into it, they will show up in windows the same as if you plugged them into your motherboard. 
 

I am fairly certain windows storage spaces will persist across windows installs, but I am not 100% sure as I have not personally used it. 
 

If you want to use the card as a true RAID card, you will need to flash it back to the original RAID firmware. This… can be a pain, but there are lots of instructions online. It really can be a pain tho. You need to either use a DOS prompt or boot into the UEFI prompt and flash the card. 
 

A quick google and I found this, but I would recommend doing more googling, the term you will want is “IR mode” as they is the RAID firmware mode. https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/perc-h310-crossflash-to-ir-mode.74410/
 

Is this PC still used as a windows 10 machine? If so, you may even consider running something like truenas in a HyperV virtual machine under windows 10, pass the HBA (in IT mode) to truenas, and let it manage the drives. Then, one day when you “retire this into a NAS only” you can reformer it with only truenas, load a backup of your truenas config (it’s just a simple XML file), and it’ll see your array and all will be well in the world. Or you could do the exact same thing but use unraid instead of that fits your needs better. It’ll run virtually in the same way if you wanted to do that. 

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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3 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

That card is in IT mode, which means it will not function as a RAID card, but it will be an HBA. This means if you plug drives into it, they will show up in windows the same as if you plugged them into your motherboard. 
 

I am fairly certain windows storage spaces will persist across windows installs, but I am not 100% sure as I have not personally used it. 
 

If you want to use the card as a true RAID card, you will need to flash it back to the original RAID firmware. This… can be a pain, but there are lots of instructions online. It really can be a pain tho. You need to either use a DOS prompt or boot into the UEFI prompt and flash the card. 
 

A quick google and I found this, but I would recommend doing more googling, the term you will want is “IR mode” as they is the RAID firmware mode. https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/perc-h310-crossflash-to-ir-mode.74410/
 

Is this PC still used as a windows 10 machine? If so, you may even consider running something like truenas in a HyperV virtual machine under windows 10, pass the HBA (in IT mode) to truenas, and let it manage the drives. Then, one day when you “retire this into a NAS only” you can reformer it with only truenas, load a backup of your truenas config (it’s just a simple XML file), and it’ll see your array and all will be well in the world. Or you could do the exact same thing but use unraid instead of that fits your needs better. It’ll run virtually in the same way if you wanted to do that. 

 I have plugged two SSDs and a 500GB HDD from an old laptop which have not been detected which begs the question have I got the correct cable?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008KF73CA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

This PC is the 'new' office PC so will be used as a windows 10 machine. The intention was that the drives on this PC would be public/shared with the other devices on our local network so files can be easily archived by anyone with the safety net of a mirrored array rather than a disorganised mess of external HDDs and limited cloud storage. We did have a MyCloud NAS which worked for this purpose but WD discontinued support so it is now a paperweight.

 

Flashing it back does sound like a learning curve which I would like to avoid if I can. Would TrueNAS/Unraid be simple to use from other machines i.e. like OneDrive/Google Drive file stream where it is integrated into file explorer.

 

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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1 hour ago, Cysero said:

 I have plugged two SSDs and a 500GB HDD from an old laptop which have not been detected which begs the question have I got the correct cable?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008KF73CA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

This PC is the 'new' office PC so will be used as a windows 10 machine. The intention was that the drives on this PC would be public/shared with the other devices on our local network so files can be easily archived by anyone with the safety net of a mirrored array rather than a disorganised mess of external HDDs and limited cloud storage. We did have a MyCloud NAS which worked for this purpose but WD discontinued support so it is now a paperweight.

 

Flashing it back does sound like a learning curve which I would like to avoid if I can. Would TrueNAS/Unraid be simple to use from other machines i.e. like OneDrive/Google Drive file stream where it is integrated into file explorer.

 

That does appear to be the correct cable. I am not sure why the drives are not showing up in windows…

 

But yes, truenas or unraid will let you create SMB shares, which is what windows would do, and what your mycloud did - SMB is the standard network file transfer mechanism. 

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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On 9/25/2022 at 9:42 PM, LIGISTX said:

That does appear to be the correct cable. I am not sure why the drives are not showing up in windows…

 

But yes, truenas or unraid will let you create SMB shares, which is what windows would do, and what your mycloud did - SMB is the standard network file transfer mechanism. 

 

I have not looked at this during the week so just getting back to it. I think I have the wrong cables. I have the reverse cable but I should have the forward cables according to this: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/76161-h310-it-mode-drives-not-detected/

 

Any ideas before I chuck some money at different cables?

 

I have verified the new Samsung SATA drives work by connecting them directly into the one spare SATA port on the motherboard.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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18 hours ago, Cysero said:

 

I have not looked at this during the week so just getting back to it. I think I have the wrong cables. I have the reverse cable but I should have the forward cables according to this: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/76161-h310-it-mode-drives-not-detected/

 

Any ideas before I chuck some money at different cables?

 

I have verified the new Samsung SATA drives work by connecting them directly into the one spare SATA port on the motherboard.

I actually have no idea what reverse or forward cables are. I always just buy them from eBay sellers who are selling used server gear. Such as:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133117291866?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=jFynvEpdSpS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

looks like they do say forward. I guess I just learned something new. No idea what a reverse cable would be… you can’t hook SAS up to SATA, so I don’t understand what purpose the cable you bought would even be. 

Rig: i7 13700k - - Asus Z790-P Wifi - - RTX 4080 - - 4x16GB 6000MHz - - Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe Boot + Main Programs - - Assorted SATA SSD's for Photo Work - - Corsair RM850x - - Sound BlasterX EA-5 - - Corsair XC8 JTC Edition - - Corsair GPU Full Cover GPU Block - - XT45 X-Flow 420 + UT60 280 rads - - EK XRES RGB PWM - - Fractal Define S2 - - Acer Predator X34 -- Logitech G502 - - Logitech G710+ - - Logitech Z5500 - - LTT Deskpad

 

Headphones/amp/dac: Schiit Lyr 3 - - Fostex TR-X00 - - Sennheiser HD 6xx

 

Homelab/ Media Server: Proxmox VE host - - 512 NVMe Samsung 980 RAID Z1 for VM's/Proxmox boot - - Xeon e5 2660 V4- - Supermicro X10SRF-i - - 128 GB ECC 2133 - - 10x4 TB WD Red RAID Z2 - - Corsair 750D - - Corsair RM650i - - Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA - - Intel RES2SC240 SAS Expander - - TreuNAS + many other VM’s

 

iPhone 14 Pro - 2018 MacBook Air

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5 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

I actually have no idea what reverse or forward cables are. I always just buy them from eBay sellers who are selling used server gear. Such as:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133117291866?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=jFynvEpdSpS&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

looks like they do say forward. I guess I just learned something new. No idea what a reverse cable would be… you can’t hook SAS up to SATA, so I don’t understand what purpose the cable you bought would even be. 

 

Backwards cable description: "The SAS8087S4R50 SFF-8087 to four SATA reverse cable features one 36 pin plug (SFF-8087), which fans out to four SATA seven-pin receptacles, providing a reliable solution for connecting a Mini SAS backplane to a SAS/SATA RAID controller or motherboard."

 

Everyday is a learning day.

 

Back ordered the forward cables and went for StarTech again. Trying to retain a black and red colour scheme to tie in with the existing Lenovo colours. Will update again when they arrive.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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  • 5 weeks later...

Plugged in the forward cables and the drives were detected with no issues. In the process of reassembling the house but looking to move this project forward very soon.

Desktop: Intel Core i7-6700k, ASUS Z170-PRO, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 64GB DDR4 (3200 MHz), ASUS 1070 DUAL OC, Corsair Spec-Alpha, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Corsair CX Series CX750M, LG 34UM88C-P, Corsair H100i v2, Corsair K55 RGB, Windows 10 Education

 

Desktop 2: Intel Core i7-4790k, Lenovo Sharkbay, Kingston HyperX Fury 24GB DDR3 (2133MHz), Gigabyte 1650 OC Low Profile, Lenovo M93 SFF, SanDisk Ultra II SSD (960GB), Silverstone TX700

 

Laptop: Sony VAIO VPCEH1L8E, Intel Core i7-2720QM, Sony MBX-247 DA0HK1MB6E0 (REV:E), Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR3L (2133 MHz), Western Digital Blue SSD (500GB), Panasonic E233037 (CPU Fan), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, Windows 10 Home

 

Other Laptop: HP G7010EA, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Crucial 5GB (4+1) DDR2 (667MHz), Samsung 960 Evo SATA SSD (500GB), Windows 10 Home

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