Not all hard drives showing up in HD Sentinel Pro

[rgorman]

We have 3 x RocketRAID 640 SATA III controller cards each with 3 x 5 port multipliers totaling 15 SATA III disks per controller card (45 total disks) in a single server. We also have 2 x SSD in a RAID 1 configuration installed for the system boot drive. That's a total of 47 disks in the server. After installing HD Sentinel pro on the server it only shows 34 disks in the list (the 2 SSD's and 32 SATA disks).

Why am I only seeing some of the disks? All the RAID volumes are accurately displayed in Disk Management. I can run the RocketRAID configuration utility within Windows and I can see all the disks that way. I find it strange that some are missing, and even stranger that it isn't exactly 15 disks missing, only 13, so it isn't a whole controller card missing...

The only thing I can think of that MIGHT be related is that we have 2 power supplies, one powers most of the drives, the other powers the rest of the drives and the system board and fans. It could be possible that the 13 missing disks are powered off of the one power supply that powers the rest of the computer components but that still shouldn't make a difference. Besides, the two SSD's are powered off the same power supply and they show up in HD Sentinel Pro...

Any insight into this problem would be very helpful.

[hdsentinel]

Do you have latest version (4.10) installed? If not, I'd recommend to upgrade to that version.

Also please use Report -> Send test report to developer option.

This will allow me to check the "raw" information provided by the disk controllers and the port multipliers.
With some port multipliers it is possible that they do not allow accessing all disks, for example giving the information about a previously detected hard disk when Hard Disk Sentinel tries to enumerate all drives connected. Of course Hard Disk Sentinel filters this to prevent duplicates displayed, so I suspect this may be the case, but the report will surely help to check what happens and how it is possible to improve the situation.

[rgorman]

I upgraded to 4.10 already and it didn't make a difference. I have sent the report in so hopefully you can find something up.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the report !

Yes, as suspected the issue is caused by that Hard Disk Sentinel received the same information about previously detected drives when it tried to collect all information about all drives connected. This is why these duplicates filtered out and the status of some drives missing.

I'm still investigating the report with more details and I'll send further information in e-mail, with some options to create raw test files as they may help to check how it is possible to improve the situation.

[rgorman]

That is entirely possible. We had 3 different RAID cards in the server for a short period of time and I was sure that HD Sentinel saw all the disks then so I suppose there could be remnants of that.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the information and the test files you sent.

I verified them and yes, I can see that the software received lots of duplicates.
I suspect the port multiplier causes that when Hard Disk Sentinel tries to access all disks, it provides the status of drives already detected and determined.

I'm still investigating how it would be possible to access the status of the currently missing drives - if the port multipliers allow that.

If possible, can you please let me know which drive(s) / positions are missing? Just to verify if both port multipliers and controllers work the same way (I'm not sure).

[rgorman]

Sorry for the delay, but here is the complete list of disks and their serial numbers and HDSentinel disk position...

Device_1_1_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0266249 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 2
Device_1_1_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0310625 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 3
Device_1_1_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0228031 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 4
Device_1_1_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ2063823 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 5
Device_1_1_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1992503 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 6
Device_1_2_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197083 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 7
Device_1_2_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197991 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 8
Device_1_2_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0282803 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 9
Device_1_2_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0204022 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 10
Device_1_2_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0266265 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 11
Device_1_3_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197001 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 12
Device_1_3_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197977 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 13
Device_1_3_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0205925 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 14
Device_1_3_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1924650 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 15
Device_1_3_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197799 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 16

Device_2_1_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197054 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 24
Device_2_1_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0206981 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 25
Device_2_1_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ2062726 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 26
Device_2_1_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0202521 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 27
Device_2_1_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1560760 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 28
Device_2_2_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0292211 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 19
Device_2_2_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0266258 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 20
Device_2_2_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0292717 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 21
Device_2_2_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0197810 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 22
Device_2_2_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0204918 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 23
Device_2_3_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1926382 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 29
Device_2_3_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0292404 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 30
Device_2_3_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1992812 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 31
Device_2_3_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0204185 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 32
Device_2_3_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0205951 Capacity 3.00 TB Disk 33

Device_3_1_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0206864 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_1_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0201756 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_1_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0266262 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_1_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0204642 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_1_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0266345 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_2_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1988452 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_2_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ2079562 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_2_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0286209 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_2_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ2077853 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_2_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WCAWZ1937953 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_3_1 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0292412 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_3_2 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0204089 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_3_3 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0311734 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_3_4 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0202842 Capacity 3.00 TB
Device_3_3_5 Model WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0-WD-WMAWZ0292725 Capacity 3.00 TB

So as you can see, all the disks on controller 3 are missing. Plus I find it weird that the disks jump from 16 to 19 in HD Sentinel. Where did 17 and 18 go in the sequence?

We are suspecting Raid controller 3 of having some issues so I am going to swap it today with a spare. It is brings back the missing disks I will let you know.

[rgorman]

Installed replacement RAID card and no change. All the disks on controller 3 are missing from HD sentinel...

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the information and the details!
I'm comparing the list with the report.

When disk #17 and #18 are detected, the software gets a drive again which is already detected.
To prevent displaying the duplicated values, these entries are invalidated, this is why drive #17 and #18 are skipped and not displayed.

But it is really weird why drives on controller #3 are not detected.

[hdsentinel]

Is it possible to send a new report when the RAID card is replaced?
I suspect this has 100% same drivers, firmware than the previous card (and the other two).

Even if things seems the same, the report may contain something different which can help. Thanks!

[rgorman]

I sent the report.

[warriorfullights]

Do we have any update on this? Has it already been fixed?

[hdsentinel]

Thanks so much for the updated report.

Yes, I see that the situation is the same: Hard Disk Sentinel gets the duplicated hard disk status (status again from previously detected drives) when it tries to detect hard disks from the 3rd controller.
I'm afraid this may be a problem with the driver / firmware of the controller as it may route the requests for the incorrect drives. I contacted the manufacturer of the controller about the situation and waiting for their answer (I suspect it may take long time...)
but if you have the opportunity, you may try to
- update the firmware and driver of the controller
- for testing, put this controller with all drives to a different system, just to check if it's alone we can get the complete hard disk status about connected drives. This may confirm if the issue is really related to the controller (or may be related to port multiplier).

I sent the report.

[rgorman]

All three controllers are running the latest firmware and drivers so there is nothing to update there.

If you are saying that it is detecting them but seeing them as duplicates, is there some way we can remove the records for the original detected drives? I can completely remove the software if that is what is required.

There is no ability to move the controller with the disks to another system. It would be too difficult to disassemble it to get the port multipliers and drives out and we have no similar case to mount them all.

I don't suspect it is the RAID card since it has been replaced and it is still doing the same thing. I also don't think it is the port multipliers since they too are providing the info to the software about the disks since you mentioned it is seeing them as duplicates.

[hdsentinel]

Hard Disk Sentinel scans all controllers for all drives. When it finds a drive which is not yet detected, it adds to the list of drives and provides complete status information, S.M.A.R.T. details and so.

The problem is that it seems when it tries to scan the 3rd controller and finds drive(s), it again gets the drives already detected previously. This is the problem: it seems the OS, the controller or its driver forwards the requests to the wrong controller, that's why Hard Disk Sentinel gets the previously detected drives again.
This is filtered automatically to make sure all drives should appear only once, otherwise we may get false assumption that all drives are fine - while the status of some drives can't be accessed at all.


> If you are saying that it is detecting them but seeing them as duplicates, is there some way we can remove
> the records for the original detected drives? I can completely remove the software if that is what is required.

Excuse me, I do not really understand ....
If you mean that the software should remove the previously detected status when it finds a such duplicate (and then add the newly detected drive), then we'll have the same result, just the order of drives would be different.


> There is no ability to move the controller with the disks to another system. It would be too difficult to
> disassemble it to get the port multipliers and drives out and we have no similar case to mount them all.

I completely understand and agree.
Just it may be nice to check what happens if the system has only 1 controller and/or only 1 set of drives connected to it.
So if possible to temporary disconnect some of the port multipliers, that may be interesting to check.