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RDD / Every kind of member drive / 520-byte and T10 PI drives

520 · 524 · 528 bytes · T10 PI · NetApp X-series · EMC VNX · Sun · 3PAR

520-byte, 528-byte and T10 PI drives. Eight extra bytes in every sector, and nothing but the array that formatted them will read them.

Storage arrays from NetApp, EMC, Sun, IBM and HPE 3PAR format their drives with more than 512 bytes in each sector: 520 or 528 on the SAS and Fibre Channel drives, with the extra bytes holding a checksum or T10 Protection Information that the array checks on every read. A standard server, a NAS or a USB dock reports the drive as 0 GB, as an incompatible sector size, or as a disk that cannot be initialised, and the fix the forums offer is to reformat it to 512 bytes with sg_format, which works perfectly and erases every byte on the drive. The bench does the opposite: the drive is imaged exactly as it is, at its native sector size, and the extra bytes are stripped from the image so that the volume inside can be read. One 520-byte drive imaged is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–4 days at the bench; a shelf of them starts at £1,250 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Do not reformat the sector size. sg_format, the array's own initialise, and the forum's fix all set the drive to 512 bytes by writing every sector. The drive becomes readable and empty. Power down, label the slots, and send the drives exactly as they are.

520-byte drive symptoms, and what each means.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
Shows 0 GB on another hostThe host cannot address 520-byte sectors. The drive is fine.Everyday job
Incompatible sector size / cannot be initialisedThe same. Do not initialise.Do not delay
Reformatted to 512 bytes by mistakeEvery sector was written. Send it; the honest answer may be no.Do not delay
Failed in the array; clickingOrdinary heads on an ordinary drive with an odd format. Power down.Do not delay
Array decommissioned; drives kept; no host to read themA whole aggregate on the shelf. Imaged and reassembled from the images.Everyday job
Protection information errors on readPI mismatches on a failing drive. Imaged with PI checking off.Everyday job
Packing it and posting it: power the server or shelf down, write the slot number on each drive with a marker before it comes out of its carrier, and keep it in the carrier. Send every member from the set where the set is the job, or the one failed member where the set is healthy and you want it imaged for the rebuild. Each drive travels in an anti-static bag inside its own padding, in a box with nothing able to move. Send the controller only if we ask for it. Insure the parcel for what the data is worth rather than the price of the drives, and use a tracked service. The posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

Where it lives, and what fails.

Why the extra bytesNetApp's WAFL and EMC's Flare store a checksum with every block so that a bad write is caught on read, and T10 Protection Information standardised the idea with a guard, an application tag and a reference tag in eight bytes after the data. The array expects them; nothing else understands them.
What a standard host seesA SAS host adaptor reports the drive's block size as 520 or 528 and the operating system declines to use it: 0 GB in Windows, no capacity in Linux, incompatible sector size on a PERC. Nothing is wrong with the drive.
Imaging at native sizeThe bench's SAS and Fibre Channel imagers read 520- and 528-byte sectors as they are, with protection checking off so that a failing drive's mismatches do not stop the read. The image is then translated to 512-byte sectors by dropping the extra bytes, and the aggregate, the LUN or the file system inside is read from that.
Aggregates and LUNsA NetApp aggregate or an EMC RAID group spans the drives in the array's own layout, and the LUNs and volumes sit inside it. Once every drive is imaged and translated, the layout is reassembled in software and the file systems inside opened in turn.

Model strings, and what they tell us.

Describe yours to us →
Format Where it comes from What the bench does
520 bytes per sectorNetApp, Sun, IBM SAS and FC drivesImaged at 520; 8 bytes stripped from the image
528 bytes per sectorEMC VNX and ClariionImaged at 528; 16 bytes stripped
512 + T10 PI (type 1/2)Dell, HPE and Lenovo PI-formatted SASImaged with PI checking off
4,160 / 4,224 bytes4K drives with PIImaged at native; translated to 4,096
Reformatted to 512A drive the forum fixedAssessed honestly; usually nothing

From the parcel arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the parcel and a number on every drive the day it is opened, matched to the slot you wrote on it. An engineer settles what has actually happened before anything spins: the interface, the sector format, the firmware, the security state, and what the controller was saying when it stopped. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo rebuilds, no imports, no resets
02

The drive on its own bench

A member drive is read on the equipment its interface needs: a SAS imager for SAS and NL-SAS, a SATA imager for enterprise SATA, a terminated SCSI or Fibre Channel controller for the legacy drives, a PCIe adaptor for NVMe. It is never put back in a server, and never in a controller that will try to rebuild. Drives that answer at full speed are imaged; drives with weak or failed heads go to the clean bench, where matched donors are fitted and the service area repaired before a sector is read.

Read at its native interfaceFailing heads to the clean bench
03

Imaged once, at its native sector size

A 520- or 528-byte drive is imaged at its native sector size with protection checking off, head by head with the weak areas last. The image is then translated to 512-byte sectors by dropping the extra bytes, and the array's layout reassembled from the translated images of every member.

Head by head, weak areas lastNative sector size preserved
04

The image, and the set

Where the set is healthy and one member was the job, the image goes back to you on a fresh drive, sector-identical, ready to rebuild from. Where the set is the job, every member is imaged and the array reassembled in software from the images: order, chunk size, parity rotation and the reshape point read from the drives' own metadata, the file system repaired on the virtual volume, never on the originals. The array work is covered in full on our RAID array site, and it happens on the same bench.

One member: a sector-identical image on fresh mediaA set: reassembled in software from the images
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–4 days at the bench

What arrives most often

  • The forum's fix erases the drive. sg_format to 512 bytes writes every sector. A drive that has had it done is a drive that reads perfectly and holds nothing.
  • Send the whole shelf where the array is the job. An aggregate spans its drives in the array's own layout, and the LUNs inside it are reconstructed from all of them.
  • Tell us the array. NetApp, EMC, Sun or IBM, and the model. The layout, the checksum scheme and the LUN format follow from it.
  • Protection information on a failing drive produces errors on read that are not media faults; the imager reads through them.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RDD-2026-0559JOB LOGGED ✓

Fourteen 520-byte SAS drives from a decommissioned NetApp DS4246, kept in a cupboard for two years, with one aggregate's files needed for an audit

There was no filer left to put them in. All fourteen drives were imaged at 520 bytes on the SAS imager, two of them slowly with weak areas, the images translated to 512-byte sectors, and the RAID-DP aggregate reassembled in software from the translated images. The WAFL volume inside was opened and the audit's files copied out.

100% of the volume recovered10 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Power down and label every slot
  • Send the drives exactly as they are
  • Tell us the array make and model
  • Say which volume or LUN matters

What sets us back

  • Reformatting the sector size to make the drive readable
  • Initialising the drive when a host offers
  • Putting the drives in a new array that offers to format them
  • Assuming 0 GB means a dead drive

Questions answered before you commit.

My drive from a NetApp shows 0 GB on a PC. Is it dead?

Almost certainly not. It has 520 bytes in every sector and the PC cannot address them. It is imaged at native size and translated. Do not reformat it.

Can you read EMC 528-byte drives?

Yes, on the SAS or Fibre Channel imager at 528 bytes, with the extra bytes stripped from the image.

The array is gone. Can the aggregate be rebuilt without it?

Yes. Every drive is imaged and translated and the aggregate's layout reassembled in software; the volumes and LUNs inside are opened from the virtual set.

I already reformatted the drive to 512 bytes. Is anything left?

The reformat writes every sector. The honest answer is usually no, and the free look says so before any charge.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing; shelves and larger sets from £1,250 + VAT.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

Drive shows 0 GB or incompatible sector size →NetApp, EMC and Sun drives →Storage shelves →NL-SAS 3.5-inch →

Nothing gets worse while it is powered down.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the server off and the drives in their slots.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting