Re: Adaptec 2400A update

• Previous message: Nicole: "5.1 system refuses to change slice via label"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 18:46:10 -0500
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org

Jason Sopko was kind enough to send me this information in regards to my Adaptec
2400A issue...

(this is being posted with his permission, of course)

-Adam

----- Forwarded message from Jason Sopko <jason@sopko.net> -----
    Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:38:44 -0400
    From: Jason Sopko <jason@sopko.net>
 Subject: Re: Adaptec 2400A update
      To: <freebsd@kungfoohampster.com>

I saw your posting on the FreeBSD Questions list here:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2003-July/014524.html

I might have a solution for you. I had a very similar problem happening
to me, and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. This sounds
absurd, but the problem could be your hard disks. I worked with Adaptec
to diagnose the problem, and eventually pinpointed the problem to be the
Western Digital disks that I was using (there is now a Knowledge Base
article on Adaptec's site because of this). I noticed by the serial
numbers of your disks (output of raidutil) that you're also using
Western Digital disks. Western Digital decided that it would be a good
idea to implement new technology into their ATA disks to reduce noise
(without telling anyone of couse). The side effect of this new
technology is that it breaks compatibility with ATA RAID controllers,
including the Adaptec 2400A. If you go to this URL:
http://support.wdc.com/kb.asp and select 'Search Our Knowledgebase' and
then search by 'Answer ID' for '913' you'll find the following:

IMPORTANT: Information for customers using a RAID configuration.

Question:
Why do EIDE drives disappear from the IDE RAID array or system after a
short period of error-free operation?

Affected drives:

- WD drives with capacities between 40GB & 120GB

- WD drives between 120GB and 200GB capacity with manufacturing date
codes earlier than 3/25/03

Answer:
Problem:
WD EIDE drives are dropped from an IDE RAID array or system after
several days or weeks of error-free operation.

Solution:
The problem is a result of a feature that reduces idle acoustic noise in
desktop drives. This feature may cause a timeout likely (though not
exclusively) in an IDE RAID environment. To disable the feature, you can
run a simple Western Digital utility to turn off a single bit in the
drive?s run-time configuration. Disabling of this feature will NOT
impact normal system operations. No firmware or hardware changes are
required.

- IDE Upgrade Utility (Non-3Ware controller cards)
For all configurations other than 3Ware controller cards, download the
IDE Upgrade Utility for the Desktop PC.

You'll find the same thing on Adaptec's Knowledge Base in Answer ID
'8888'. I've found that it affected my 60GB Western Digital ATA disks.
Unfortunately, their 'fix' did not work, but replacing the disks with
60GB IBM (Hitachi) ones did solve the problem. Personally, I'll never
buy another Western Digital product again. I hope you find a solution to
your problem, good luck.

///Jason

----- End forwarded message -----

_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"

• Previous message: Nicole: "5.1 system refuses to change slice via label"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]