HDD mis-reporting size.

[Cygnus]

I had a RAID Applications server that I recently setup for a client this week crash on me. We brought the server back to the shop and found that one of the RAID drives was possibly bad. We hooked up each drive to IDE0 and found that one of the 40GB drives was reporting itself as and 82GB drive even while it was off of the array. I'm pretty sure this is a problem with the logic board on the HDD, but is there a way to save the drive by some way reseting this? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[AlienDyne]

You can temporarily replace its board with another one from the exact same model and backup the data, before RMA'ing it.

[confus-ed]

[quote]Originally posted by Cygnus:
<strong>...one of the 40GB drives was reporting itself as and 82GB drive even while it was off of the array. I'm pretty sure this is a problem with the logic board on the HDD, but is there a way to save the drive by some way reseting this? </strong><hr></blockquote>


Does the HD report similar elsewhere?

Does save mean drive or data?

[Cygnus]

You read my mind AlienDyne. I have one on order right now and im planning on switching the boards when it arrives.

And yea, I did try it in two other machines and it came up with the same results. Never had that problem before.

[Cygnus]

OH YEA...BTW. What i was looking for is maybe a method of reseting the ROM on the HDD. Kinda like a clear CMOS for a HDD. Didnt know if it was possible, it should be.

[Ruslan]

[quote]Originally posted by Cygnus:
<strong>OH YEA...BTW. What i was looking for is maybe a method of reseting the ROM on the HDD. Kinda like a clear CMOS for a HDD. Didnt know if it was possible, it should be.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Most of modern harddrives have flash memory chip soldered into PCB and used as HDD controler's BIOS. If something went wrong with that chip, it could cause that problem. Some of HDD manufacturers have special firmware update utils, what can rewrits that chip.
Another issue - it could be also partially damaged firmware written into few first hidden cylinders (usually it is engineering cylinders from -6 to -1). All drive's parameters (number of cylinders,capacity, firmware needed for normal controller's work, serial number,defect table and so on are also located on these hidden cylinders). If something wrong happened with these cylinders - drive's parameters could be lost. It is possible to rewrite that firmware back also, but so far as I know, modern repair software/hardware (including HDD repair complex PC3000 I'm using now) doesn't know yet about firmware of the latest HDD models above 60 Gig...

So, backing up data of that drive may be bit complex task. I would try to replace electronics first, as it was suggested, but carefully - or You can lost warranty...