Mass formatting SAS/SCSI drives in hotswap environment (HP servers)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

jagwag

Reputable
Jun 2, 2015
3
0
4,510
So trying to use HP SmartStart as a means to determine drives to be good for recycle/reuse. After running through a batch of drives I'm trying to discover what is the most efficient way to format/erase the drives. I'm not trying to do a full body cleanse here or anything just enough that there isn't any readily accessible data upon initial use. I've noticed SmartStart doesn't really offer any formating options and I'd prefer to not have to create logical drives and boot to an OS to do it, these drives are all different specs.

I know when working with other servers initiating the drives in the controller normally formats them, however that (to my surprise) doesn't seem to take place in the HP system. When I create a logic drive no formatting takes place.

Any suggestions on a launcher, third party or otherwise, that can recognize the physical disks and carry out what I need?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
drtweak

drtweak

Illustrious
Sep 17, 2012
6,342
75
38,640
Well At least with Dells and their PERC cards they usually don't support JBOD where it just loads up and you see the drives. You usually have to create vitural drives in the RAID card.

Some SAS Cards support JBOS and will just read the card right out front but again depends on the RAID card,

And as for the Initlizing part, if you do a RAID 1 or 0 sometimes it doesn't need to do it.

As far as the Specs of each drive as long as they are the same size you can make RAID 0's for each set of same size drives, then use a program like Boot and Nuke which boots off a CD/DVD/Thumb Drive and then just wipe them out. No OS needed
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

jagwag

Reputable
Jun 2, 2015
3
0
4,510


Using HP servers, SmartStart see's physical drives without needing to set up an array, in my experience this isn't necessarily a common feature but my goal would be to discover if there are any erasing tools that work in much the same way.

The problem that is presented with Boot and Nuke is that I'd still have to initialize every single drive, which if that's my only option I will just have to so, but also according to their site it doesn't support SAS drives.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
drtweak

drtweak

Illustrious
Sep 17, 2012
6,342
75
38,640
Yea never used Boot and Nuke on SAS Drives. Only used it on some old Dell PE 1600 with Ultra Wide 320 SCSI Drives. That was before I bought Active Kill Disk which loads up in a Win PE Enviroment and then i can wipe each drive. That should work for you if it can see the drivers with out making an array in the RAID Card.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

jagwag

Reputable
Jun 2, 2015
3
0
4,510


Seems like it would work in most cases but depressingly enough still no SAS support.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
drtweak

drtweak

Illustrious
Sep 17, 2012
6,342
75
38,640
Yea try Active Kill Disk. They have free versions (May have to install on a PC and then make a Bootable windows PE disk) but it is free for 1 Pass wipes (Maybe do a few passes if you want) I have used this on Dell PERC Cards that ware SAS with RAID arrays setup.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom