New 8 TB HDD not recognized (FreeNAS 9.3)

[MAC_Addy]

Yes, I read about that and I am heading out to Fry's when they open to pick up some Kapton tape :D.

Nice! It's really easy to use, to be honest. Just use a REALLY sharp knife to get a good cut.

 

[MarkS-Indy]

Nice! It's really easy to use, to be honest. Just use a REALLY sharp knife to get a good cut.

I also read that to be safe, cover pins 1 and 2 also.

 

[MAC_Addy]

I also read that to be safe, cover pins 1 and 2 also.

Hmm. Not too sure about that. I covered just pin 3 and all mine work. I have 6 drives in total that I had to do.

 

[MarkS-Indy]

I thought I would post a follow-up on this.

Apparently the only way to be able to use new HDDs that have the PWDIS feature enabled on pin 3 with older power supplies, is to prevent the HDD from getting 3.3V on pin 3. There seems to be 2 approaches to doing this in situations where those older power supplies are compliant with SATA specs prior to 3.2+:

1. Use a molex to SATA adapter, since 3.3V will not be provided for pins 1-3.
2. Use Kapton self-adhesive 1 mil tape to tape over pin 3 (taping over pins 1-3 also works, just be sure that all of pin 3 is covered).

Since my server connects all of the HDDs through a backplane (power supplied via molex connectors) with built-in SATA power and is fully compliant with the SATA power specs, my only options are:

1. Buy a new server case that has a backplane compliant with the new spec.
2. Use option 2 above.

Although I have not ruled out option 1 (new case) completely, I have proceeded with option 2, and I am pleased to report that even as I am writing this reply, the server is resilvering the "taped" drive.

Status is: RESOLVED!!

Big thanks to all that have provided input that pointed me in the right direction.:D

 

[Ericloewe]

You may be able to modify your backplane and remove the regulator powering the 3.3 V for the disks. If it's not also powering other things on the backplane...

 

[Jailer]

Thanks for the follow up.

 

[rvassar]

You may be able to modify your backplane and remove the regulator powering the 3.3 V for the disks. If it's not also powering other things on the backplane...

I was thinking along similar lines, but the locally down-regulated 3.3v is likely powering other circuitry. If the manufacturer was smart and thought ahead they'd have a feature jumper, but I don't see anything on Norco's website. The pics they provide clearly show 4-pin molex plugs for the drive bays, and an independent front panel board. It looks like a pretty nice case actually.

Thanks for the follow up.

And yes, thanks for the follow up!

 

[MarkS-Indy]

You may be able to modify your backplane and remove the regulator powering the 3.3 V for the disks. If it's not also powering other things on the backplane...

Nice suggestion, but likely beyond my skill level.

 

[MarkS-Indy]

I was thinking along similar lines, but the locally down-regulated 3.3v is likely powering other circuitry. If the manufacturer was smart and thought ahead they'd have a feature jumper, but I don't see anything on Norco's website. The pics they provide clearly show 4-pin molex plugs for the drive bays, and an independent front panel board. It looks like a pretty nice case actually.

It is a pretty nice case. Very substantially built with decently heavy gauge sheet metal and plenty of air throughput. Pretty heavy empty, and with 20 HDDs in it takes two people to move it around to work on it, which, fortunately, is a very rare event. The last time was to remove the flash drives and install an SSD for a boot device instead. And, while I have some peoples attention, perhaps some suggestions as to why when I tried to upgrade to 9.10, I ended up in a repeating reboot cycle, and what I might be able to do to either "reinstall" of 9.10 or perhaps jump to 11.1?