Can't initialize some SAS HDDs on LSI 9207-8i

[Mnky313]

I'm messing around with some SAS HDDs I have lying around however some models won't initialize. (windows server 2022, right clicking the drive in disk management and clicking 'Initialize' results in 'The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.'

drives are connected via a Supermicro backplane to an IBM M5110 (in IT Mode) (based off LSI 9207-8i).

Drives that work:

ST1000NM0023
ST2000NM0023
ST32000645SS

Drives that don't work (there are multiple of each drive, it's highly unlikely it's an issue with dead drives):

ST1000NM0001
ST3000NM0023

 

Weirdly 2 of the dozen or so ST31000424SS work fine but the others don't...

The 1TB drives that don't initialize display as ~917GB, all the ones that do show as ~931GB... This lead me to believe it was a 520 Byte vs 512 Byte sector thing that I ran into before but googling it both drives show as 512 Byte sectors....

Any ideas?

Edit: it might actually be the 520 vs 512 byte sectors, I guess the seller had them formatted as 520 byte. I'm reformatting one now to see if it works but it's going to take hours....

[Mnky313]

It was the 520 byte vs 512 byte sector thing.

I used sg3utils to change format the drives as 512 byte sectors:

sg_scan

^ gives the drive IDs (PDX)

sg_format --format --size 512 PDX

^ replace PDX with actual ID, this formats the drive. all data will be wiped and it'll take multiple hours, even 1TB drives seem to take ~4-5 hours.