How to convert 512e to 4Kn using Fast Format (Seagate Exos X16 drive) ?

ixion

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I'm planning to purchase some Seagate Exos X16 (model ST16000NM001G) 16TB drives. They come formatted in 512e by default, but they support "Fast Format" to convert to 4Kn so that they appear as a true 4Kn to the OS. This is documented in the Seagate documentation, but they neglect to say how you do it, and with what tool.

What tool or command line option can I use to do this? Do you have to use the Seagate Seatools (it doesn't even appear to support it)? Does BSD or Windows support this? Or sg_format? Or parted? I've search all over the web and cannot find any information on this.

PS- Yes, I know that using ashift=12 works fine with 512e drives, that's not my question, I want to convert the drives to 4Kn using the Fast Format feature. Thanks.

UPDATE:
Here's the solution for Windows (you can do it in Linux also, with similar command line options)

Download SeaChest_Lite here:
https://www.seagate.com/support/software/seachest/

In an elevated (admin) Command Prompt window, scan for your drive with the command:
Code:
SeaChest_Lite --scan

You should see your drive ID something like "PD1" for example.
Check to see if the drive supports changing the sector size using Fast Format:
Code:
SeaChest_Lite --device PD1 --showSupportedSectorSizes

Change the format from 512e to 4Kn:
Code:
SeaChest_Lite --device PD1 --setSectorSize 4096
 
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Yorick

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Jimi Evo

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First, I want to thank you, ixion. There is next to no documentation on the "How", just that it can be done. You sent me down the right path. I followed the first two steps (Scan & Show Sectors). But i'm having trouble with the last step. It won't set the sectors as you can see below. I'm using Windows 10 and Seagate Exos X14 Drives and the data sheet says it can handle 4k. I've tried as direct SATA connection and as an USB external drive. I'm banging my head against a wall. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.
1591653803589.png
 

Samuel Tai

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Is this one of those utilities that absolutely have to be run from MS-DOS?
 

Jimi Evo

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Maybe. I'm running from command prompt (Run; CMD) Would you think a bootable drive is the way to go?
 

Samuel Tai

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According to the SeaChest manual, it has to be run from an Administrator Command Prompt.
 

NugentS

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Is this worth doing?
And if it is - I guess that means destroying the pool (shudder) and starting again
I have 6 Exos 12TB (ST12000NM0008-2H3101) and just stuck them in the server and let FreeNAS get on with it.
Is it possible to tell how the drives have been formatted as I can't find anywhere that FreeNAS tells me
 

Samuel Tai

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Is it possible to tell how the drives have been formatted as I can't find anywhere that FreeNAS tells me

smartctl -i /dev/adax will tell you. Look for the line that states Sector Sizes. For example, on my WD Red /dev/ada1:

Code:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Red
Device Model:     WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
Serial Number:    WD-WCC7K7DDVSL7
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 21132bb0c
Firmware Version: 82.00A82
User Capacity:    4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Jun  8 20:20:59 2020 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
 

NugentS

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Like you I get 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

Presumably that means its native 4K, but formatted 512 and thus AFAICT not running optimally

I also imagine that correcting this would be fraught, destroying the pool, reformatting and then putting all the data back on. Sounds like fun - NOT
 

Samuel Tai

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This is one of those high risk, low return "fixes" that I don't think are worth it.
 

NugentS

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Yeah. I might play with some scratch disks that also have 4K sectors in them.
 

Jimi Evo

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@Samuel Tai , I believe I am, See attached photo. I could be wrong.
1591671941329.png


@NugentS , I believe my situation is different then yours, I'm moving from a 8 bay to a 12 bay and have the extra drives and the right drives so i figured now is a good opportunity to "move into the future". If I can't get this to work, I'll just keep keep the 512e on the new pool.
 

payback007

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Hi all,

did the same as described with SeaChest Lite and SeaChest utilities. Unfortunately the software reported an all my 4 drives the change to 4kn, but at the end only 2 drives are working. Remaining 2 drives showing now logical 512 and physical 4096 and the 2 drives are not working any more.

Both drives show "supporting 512 only" and a format change is no longer possible.

Someboday any idea for "re-formating"?
 

Anteus

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Hi I have a problem. I also want to change to 4Kn, but I can't run Seachest Lite don't you know where the problem might be? Of course I run it as an administrator, but it doesn't work.
Thank you very much for your answer.
I apologize for my English, I am not a native speaker.
 

CAITSysAdmin

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I stumbled across this thread after running into some of the same issues mentioned and thought I would add how to flash your drives to the same rev.

I manage PB scale storage arrays for a research center. Whenever we refresh our drives we always flash each batch with the same firmware revision. Then we switch 512e to 4k, unless, of course they are 4Kn
We noticed in mix drive environments (specifically the Evans and MobulaBP Seagate series) the seachest lite did not always flash correctly.
After some back and forth with seagate engineers there are specific builds of their seachest firmware tool. The documentation in SeaChest_Lite states you can flash your drives with that utility but I have ~30 drives that were RMA'ed as a result of failed flashes.

Below are the details to correctly flash your seagate drives. If you have a ton of drives you can use a cfg file to flash and convert many drives.

The easiest way to get the correct firmware build and seachest firmware flash tool: https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html
Enter the serial number of your drive. Download the firmware and seachest utility provided in a zip file. Unzip and open an elevated shell.

Code:
#Scan your drives
Seachest_firmware_x64_windows --scan

#retrieve drive info if you wish to confirm drive supports 4k
Seachest_firmware_x64_windows -d PD8 -i

#flash drive with the provided firmware
Seachest_firmware_x64_windows -d PD8 --downloadFW EvansExosX16SAS-STD-512E-E004.LOD


Thanks!
 

Alex_K

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Greetings

Is there a way to Fastformat Exos X16 SAS into 4Kn under FreeNAS?
Finding Windows/Linux machine to use for that with SAS controller here and now proven a lot complicated
 

NugentS

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Not that I found. I plugged the disks into another machine and formatted them off that. I THINK I ended up using a USB Stick in the end as the most reliable way
 

Alex_K

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I suspect we could utilize camcontrol to send commands to disks.
Maybe it could help initiate sectors reconfiguration according to what is written in Seagate documentation, but I may not, sadly, have enough understanding to dig deeper yet and not break anything

Only Seagate documentation on the subject I found is here

What I found, however, is that people used camcontrol previously to reformat some proprietary 520 byte per sector disks into 512 http://www.sysop.ca/?p=208

Not having to reboot the NAS server into another system for couple days (according to Seagate reformatting process can take 30 hours or more) or use different server for the task will be huge benefit
 
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NugentS

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The seagate format takes about 1 minute (or so) on a 12TB Exos. I tried several methods but found the most reliable was a USB Boot Disk
To get the firmware goto: https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html?userPreferredLocaleCookie=en_US_

Put in the serial number and download a file containing everything you need. I have both Evans and Mobula (Don't ask me what they mean) but used the same USB stick, I just copied the firmware from the Evans ISO to the other ISO and updated the firmware AND formatted 4Kn

And I didn't brick any

Commands are:
SeaChest_Firmware -d /dev/"ID of Drive" --downloadFW "firmware file name"
SeaChest_Format -d /dev/"ID of Drive" --setSectorSize=4096 --confirm this-will-erase-data

Only takes a couple of minutes in total
 
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