Locked HGST drives

On XXXX we purchased ##x 1.2TB HGST HUC101212CSS600 drives off ebay for use in our servers.

These disks have three primary issues:

1. They are formatted with 520-byte sectors. This prevents them from working with Dell PERC and HP Smart Array controllers, even when the controllers are set to "HBA-mode". They are only usable with a true HBA (or a Dell/HP controller flashed to the 3rd-party "IT mode" firmware).
2. They have Hitachi Vantara firmware [1] that locks them to Hitachi VSP systems and doesn't let them work with normal servers.
3. They have a lock preventing them from being reflashed with the Dell / HP firmware that would allow them to be used in generic systems.

Problem 1: (520-byte sectors)

This is a very common problem with decommissioned enterprise SAS drives and also typically very easy to fix.

All you need is a "true" HBA in the server that is reformatting the disks. Dell PERC cards and HP Smart Array controllers cannot communicate with 520-byte sector disks whatsoever, even when put into "HBA mode".

The cards inside the Kurisu and Okabe servers have been flashed to "IT mode", as their PERC cards were old enough to be flashed using a script).

The sector size of a disk can be reformatted to 512 bytes using sg3utils with the command below:

sg_format -v --format --size=512 --six /dev/sgX

Of note, --six and --ten depend on what brand of disk you are using.

I don't know which option is correct for our specific drives, may be worth scouring the internet for a report from someone with our drives with the Dell firmware who was able to reformat it.

It is likely we won't know for sure which option to use until we unlock the firmware ourselves.

copy+paste dump for later:

sg_write_buffer -v -I HGST-Ultrastar-C10K1200-HUC101212CSS600-SAS-DELL-U440.LOD /dev/sg3