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RDD / Families and hosts / HPE-branded drives

SmartDrive · HPD7 · HPD8 · EG001200JWJNK · MO1600JVYPR · VO0480JFDGT · MSA MO1600JFFCK

HPE server drive recovery. SmartDrive carriers, HP firmware, and two famous clocks.

HPE's drives are Seagate, HGST, Toshiba and SanDisk mechanics in SmartDrive carriers with HPE firmware whose revisions begin HPD. The hard drives carry EG for 10K, EH for 15K, MB and MM for midline; the SAS SSDs VO for read-intensive, MO and MK for mixed use, EO and EK for write-intensive; the part numbers end -B21 for kits and -001 for spares. A Smart Array refuses to authenticate a drive without HPE firmware, reports its verdicts as predictive failure and logical drive failed, and lights the SmartDrive carrier amber, blue or do-not-remove by pattern. And in 2019 and 2020 HPE published the two bulletins that made this family famous: SAS SSDs failing at exactly 32,768 power-on hours before HPD8, and another line at 40,000 before HPD7. One failed HPE-branded member imaged is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–4 days at the bench.

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

Power down. Label every slot before a drive comes out. Do not rebuild while a second drive is flagged. Do not clear or import a foreign configuration. Do not initialise, reformat or PSID-revert anything. A rebuild reads every sector of every surviving member, and on a set whose drives were bought together it is where the second failure is found. Nothing on the drives gets worse while the server is off.

Models we see, family by family.

Which kind of drive is it →
Family Model strings Interface, capacity and notes
10K and 15K SASEG001200JWJNK, EG000600JWEBH, EH000600JWCPH2.5-inch · Seagate and HGST mechanics
MidlineMB008000JWJRQ, MB012000JWDFD, MM1000JEFRB3.5-inch and 2.5-inch nearline
SAS SSD, 32,768-hour lineVO0480JFDGT, VO0960JFDGU, VO1920JFDGV; MSA MO0400JFFCF, MO0800JFFCH, MO1600JFFCK, MO3200JFFCLFixed in HPD8
SAS SSD, 40,000-hour lineEK0800JVYPN, EO1600JVYPP, MK0800JVYPQ, MO1600JVYPRFixed in HPD7
NVMeHPE-branded PM9A3, CM6; the 4,700-hour lineFixed in 4ICRHPK3

What tends to go wrong on an HPE drive.

32,768 hours, November 2019HPE bulletin a00092491: certain SAS SSDs in ProLiant and MSA on firmware before HPD8 fail at 32,768 power-on hours, 3 years, 270 days and 8 hours. HPE's words: neither the SSD nor the data can be recovered, and drives put into service together will fail nearly simultaneously.
40,000 hours, March 2020Bulletin a00097382, issued 20 March 2020 after WD notified HPE in February of a firmware issue in a specific line of older SanDisk SAS SSDs: another line failing at 40,000 hours before HPD7. HPE said the drives were not susceptible until October 2020 at the earliest; that date has long passed.
Not authenticated, unsupportedA Smart Array refuses drives without HPE firmware and says so. It is a warning about support, not a fault with the data.
Defective media retentionHPE's standard service returns the failed drive. Its retention options let you keep it. Ask before the courier is booked.

HPE-branded drives symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
Clicking or ticking in the slotFailed heads. Every power-on scratches. Power down.Do not delay
Predictive failure on a degraded setThe second failure, announced. Image both weak drives first.Do not delay
Dropped by the controller; reads in a dockOne slow read. Image it before it goes back in.Everyday job
Rebuild stalled at n per centA survivor's read errors. Power down.Do not delay
Two from the set gone within weeksSame batch, same hours. Send both; expect a third.Do not delay
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.

What the message means on an HPE drive.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Drive not authenticated / unsupportedNo HPE firmwareA warning; data unaffected
SAS SSDs failed togetherThe 32,768 or 40,000-hour clockAssessed at controller level
SmartDrive do-not-remove litA rebuild or a write in progressDo not pull it
Predictive failureThresholds crossed; still readsReplace on a healthy set; image first on a degraded one
Failed by the controller; spinsAnswered one read too slowlyUsually reads on the bench; image it
ClickingFailed headsPower down; matched donor in clean air
Rebuild stalled on this driveUnrecoverable read errorsImaged with weak areas last; set rebuilt from images

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

Every drive is imaged sector by sector, head by head where it needs it, with the bad areas last. Drives with 520- or 528-byte sectors are imaged as they are and the extra bytes stripped from the image, never the drive. Self-encrypting drives are unlocked on the imager with the key you supply. From then on the originals are not touched again.

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

From the bench

  • Export the SSA diagnostic report or the iLO log before the server is touched.
  • Check the firmware revision on every SAS SSD in a Gen8 or Gen9: HPD7 and HPD8 prevent; they do not cure.
  • Why 32,768? It is two to the power fifteen. A counter overflowing at that number is the usual suspect, though HPE never said.
  • Failed by the controller is not failed. Enterprise firmware reports a bad sector in seconds; the controller drops the drive; the drive reads on a bench that waits.
  • Send it in its carrier with the slot written on it, and the controller's log if you can export one.
  • Drives bought together fail together. When one goes, the survivors are on notice, and the rebuild is where it shows.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · RDD-2026-0561JOB LOGGED ✓

A DL380 Gen9 in RAID 5 with one EG drive failed and a second predictive, an engineer booked with a replacement, and a logical drive nobody had backed up

The owner asked the engineer to wait and sent both drives here in their carriers. The failed drive had a head swap on the clean bench and was imaged on the SAS imager; the predictive one was imaged with its weak areas last. Both images went back on fresh drives, and the engineer's replacements went into a logical drive that had already been made whole.

100% of both members recovered5 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 the slot
  • Send the drive in its carrier
  • Export the controller log
  • Tell us the model string and the firmware revision

What sets us back

  • Rebuilding with a second drive flagged
  • Putting the drive back in to see
  • Running a long SMART test on a weak drive
  • Handing the failed drive to the warranty courier first

Questions answered before you commit.

Is HPE right that the data cannot be recovered after the 32,768-hour failure?

Often. Some drives answer at controller level and some do not. It costs nothing to find out which yours are.

What does drive not authenticated mean?

That the drive lacks HPE firmware. A warning about support, not a fault with the data.

Does HPE recover data from ProLiant drives?

Not as a service we could find. Its retention options let you keep the failed drive; the recovery is done here.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing; sets of two to four from £500 + VAT; MSA and shelves from £1,250 + VAT.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

HPE ProLiant and Smart Array →HPE logical drive failed or predictive failure →SSDs failed at 32,768 or 40,000 hours →Dell, HPE and Lenovo-branded →

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