NetApp X-series · DS4246 · DS2246 · EMC VNX · Clariion · Sun StorageTek · 3PAR · 520 · 528
NetApp, EMC and Sun drives drive recovery. The same three makers' drives, with eight extra bytes in every sector.
NetApp, EMC, Sun and HPE 3PAR buy the same Seagate, HGST and Toshiba drives as everyone else and format them differently: 520 or 528 bytes in every sector, the extra bytes holding a checksum or T10 Protection Information the array checks on every read, with vendor firmware that other hosts refuse. A standard server reports the drive as 0 GB and offers to initialise it; the forum offers sg_format, which erases it. The bench images the drive at its native sector size, strips the extra bytes from the image, and reassembles the aggregate or RAID group from the translated images of every member. One drive imaged is £300 + VAT after the free look; a shelf from £1,250 + VAT.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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Models we see, family by family.
Which kind of drive is it →| Family | Model strings | Interface, capacity and notes |
|---|---|---|
| NetApp | X306A (2TB), X308A (3TB), X316A (6TB), X421A (450GB 10K), X423A (900GB 10K), X425A (1.2TB 10K) | 520 bytes · RAID-DP aggregates |
| EMC | VNX 005049xxx, Clariion 005048xxx part numbers | 528 bytes · RAID groups and pools |
| Sun / Oracle | 390-0xxx part numbers | 520 bytes |
| HPE 3PAR | 3PAR-labelled NL-SAS and SSD | Vendor firmware; chunklets |
What tends to go wrong on a storage-array drive.
NetApp, EMC and Sun drives symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What the message means on a storage-array drive.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Predictive failure | Thresholds crossed; still reads | Replace on a healthy set; image first on a degraded one |
| Failed by the controller; spins | Answered one read too slowly | Usually reads on the bench; image it |
| Clicking | Failed heads | Power down; matched donor in clean air |
| Rebuild stalled on this drive | Unrecoverable read errors | Imaged with weak areas last; set rebuilt from images |
From the parcel arriving to your files going back.
Work we have closed →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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
From the bench
- 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.
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.
The array is gone. Can the aggregate be rebuilt without it?
Yes. Every drive is imaged at native size and translated, and the aggregate's layout reassembled in software; the volumes and LUNs inside are opened from the virtual set.
Do I send one drive or the set?
One drive where the set is healthy and you want it imaged for the rebuild; every member, labelled by slot, where a second drive is flagged or the set has failed.
What does it cost?
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look; a shelf or an aggregate from £1,250 + VAT, fixed in writing.
How long does it take?
3–4 days at the bench for one drive; 5–10 days at the bench for a set.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
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.