upctry2

Q: New Hard drive install problems

Hi,

I just purchased a new 1TB Carviar Black drive from OWC. The blue light on the drive keeps coming on trying to mount the drive

and it does not show up in disk utility. Will this drive work with xserve? WDGWD1003FZEX

 

Thanks

Martin

i Have a early 2008 xserve running 10.7.5

Xserve, OS X Server

Posted on Feb 1, 2016 6:02 AM

Close

Q: New Hard drive install problems

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Feb 1, 2016 9:01 AM in response to upctry2
    Level 6 (15,612 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 1, 2016 9:01 AM in response to upctry2

    Contact OWC and ask for help.  If they've stated it works with Xserve, it should work.   If they've not, then it might not, or won't.


    The OWC folks appear to only offer used drives for Xserve, based on a quick search.


    Xserve tends to be fussy about the drive settings.  Check for forums for previous discussions of third-party disks in Xserve for related details.  As part of this, the drive will probably have to be configured or jumpered or set to SATA-I (1.5 Gbps) speeds.   Whether this SATA III drive supports that switch? 


  • by upctry2,

    upctry2 upctry2 Feb 1, 2016 10:44 AM in response to MrHoffman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 1, 2016 10:44 AM in response to MrHoffman

    Thanks for the note,

     

    I contacted them and we partitioned the drive on my Mac Pro and then installed it into its caddy and powered up the xserve.

    The xserve took a long tome to reconize the drive but we could not partition it or erace the drive we got a error message something

    about not being able to do something with the last block? don't remember the whole sentence, so there sending me a new drive.

     

    I will call them back and look for third part disks in xserve.

    Thanks

    Martin

  • by upctry2,

    upctry2 upctry2 Feb 8, 2016 7:15 AM in response to upctry2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 8, 2016 7:15 AM in response to upctry2

    Thanks for the note,

     

    I contacted them and we partitioned the drive on my Mac Pro and then installed it into its caddy and powered up the xserve.

    The xserve took a long tome to reconize the drive but we could not partition it or erace the drive we got a error message something

    about not being able to do something with the last block? don't remember the whole sentence, so there sending me a new drive.

     

    I will call them back and look for third part disks in xserve.

  • by upctry2,

    upctry2 upctry2 Feb 8, 2016 7:20 AM in response to upctry2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 8, 2016 7:20 AM in response to upctry2

    Hi Again,

    I have a second WD drive now New with jumper in place. It reads and writes on my Lion MacPro, But when I add it to bay 3 on the xserve

    it will some times show up in disk utility but no data and not in finder. What to do next

    This is a early 2008 xserve running 10.7.5

    Screen Shot 2016-02-08 at 10.10.43 AM.pngScreen Shot 2016-02-08 at 10.11.12 AM.png

  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Feb 8, 2016 8:45 AM in response to upctry2
    Level 6 (15,612 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 8, 2016 8:45 AM in response to upctry2

    Either buy Apple modules where you can find them, or find some drive modules that are supported and tested here by somebody else, or — and this is not trivial — spend the time necessary to figure out what it is about these that the controller or the operating system doesn't like about the disks that you have.

     

    This whole area can be subtle and complex, and there can be more than a few causes for a device to be rejected — firmware differences, disk drive firmware settings differences, differences in return status values across different vendors or even different firmware revisions, and various firmware bugs.

     

    Sometimes the device firmware settings can be tweaked to make the device more compatible, as you're probably not — unlike where I was doing this integration and testing — to change the host software.

     

    Or identify the specific disks that are in working configurations — vendor, model and firmware revision — and locate more of those. 

    There are discussions around the 'net that might point to some of these "compatible" devices, but unfortunately few folks think to post the firmware revisions they've found working (or not working), and compatibility does depend on the device firmware.


    Or move the storage out to a FC SAN, and deal with compatibility out there.

     

    Sorry.   There's no good answer here.  This stuff is gnarly.   If everything were as compatible and interchangeable as...  But it's not.

     

    Background: I spent more than a few years doing device integration and testing for a vendor. 

     

    Unless I'm buying a lot of disks, I prefer to buy something that somebody else has tested and supports.

  • by upctry2,

    upctry2 upctry2 Feb 8, 2016 3:50 PM in response to MrHoffman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 8, 2016 3:50 PM in response to MrHoffman

    Thanks Mr Hoffman,

    The xserve has 3 80gb seagate Barracuta drive all work and show in finder. I bought a 1 TB WD apple xserve

    drive on eBay so I'll see it that works. Maybe it just likes Seagate drives.