Reader Feedback on Warning: IBM Says Some SATA Disks Are Going to Sleep

Published: March 23, 2009

Dear Tim:

Thank you for the heads up to the community! However, the solution to the sleeping SATA drives is already out there. The answer to solve the issue you brought to our attention is in the linked page. . . not at the end of the quarter as you indicated; it is a contradiction within the article. I read the entire IBM page and the details, problem, and solution is there at the end of the server list. LOL.

I went to the Seagate site and they have an update since February and have updated all other OEMs. (I Googled it to be sure.) IBM states in its page they are currently shipping new drives without this issue. Have also links to download the updates in that same page since February as well.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

From the IBM link you provided:

"Additional information: This rare condition is caused by a hard drive firmware issue that allows the drive's 'event log' pointer to be set to an invalid location. This condition is detected by the drive during power up, and the drive goes in to failsafe mode to prevent inadvertent corruption. As a result, once the failure has occurred, user data becomes inaccessible. The condition only occurs after a power cycle and not during runtime. Therefore, avoiding or minimizing power cycles will greatly reduce the chances of SATA drives becoming inoperable after a power cycle. For additional Hard Disk Drives affected in IBM System Storage and TotalStorage products, refer to RETAIN tip H194697 (MIGR-5079399). Current IBM products do not ship with hard drives exposed to this issue."

Seagate support update on the issue can be found at: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207963

Yours truly,

--Miguel

Thanks, Miguel. You only read as far as you think you need to, I guess. I was told by IBMers (meaning people, not Web pages) to expect a fix for the issue by the end of the quarter. Which is why I wrote that. I guess they did not read the whole note, either! HA!

As long as the problem is fixed, I am happy.

--TPM

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Warning: IBM Says Some SATA Disks Are Going to Sleep

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