SAS Drive Test-Bed Setup
Budget: €250 – €750 EUR
I want a repeatable, low-cost procedure for validating a single 12 Gb/s Seagate SAS hard drive on the bench. The end goal is to tell, with confidence, whether the drive still meets factory specifications, to pinpoint any failure mode if it does not, and to map or re-allocate every bad sector before the unit is returned to stock or scrapped.
I also want to get insight into specific manufacturer commands. This disks are “signed” by the reseller so only the signed drives can be used in their machines and I want to understand that process and ideally be able to sign any commercial drive. This can be treated as a separated project.
I may work in either Windows or Linux; Commercial licences are fine if they add real value, but free or open-source tools are preferable.
I do not yet own a host interface, so your first task is to recommend an affordable controller (plain SAS HBA, entry-level RAID card in passthrough—whatever makes sense) plus any breakout cables or power adapters required to talk to a single 2.5-inch SAS drive on the desk.
Deliverables
• Parts list with current links and prices for the interface hardware and any supporting kit
• Installation and configuration steps for the chosen OS, including driver or firmware notes for the controller
• Testing workflow that covers:
– comprehensive SMART attribute capture
– SCSI inquiry, log page, and self-test command usage
– full-surface read/write scan with automatic bad-block remap where possible
– extraction of lifetime power-on hours, temperature history, and error statistics
• Example command-line scripts or GUI settings so I can click “go” and walk away
• A brief explanation of how to interpret each result and decide pass/fail
• Receive information, analysis and guide about specific manufacturer commands for this drives case (this can be treated as a separated project if agreed)
Some models examples: Seagate ST1800MM0129, ST900MM0168, ST300MM0006
I also want to get insight into specific manufacturer commands. This disks are “signed” by the reseller so only the signed drives can be used in their machines and I want to understand that process and ideally be able to sign any commercial drive. This can be treated as a separated project.
I may work in either Windows or Linux; Commercial licences are fine if they add real value, but free or open-source tools are preferable.
I do not yet own a host interface, so your first task is to recommend an affordable controller (plain SAS HBA, entry-level RAID card in passthrough—whatever makes sense) plus any breakout cables or power adapters required to talk to a single 2.5-inch SAS drive on the desk.
Deliverables
• Parts list with current links and prices for the interface hardware and any supporting kit
• Installation and configuration steps for the chosen OS, including driver or firmware notes for the controller
• Testing workflow that covers:
– comprehensive SMART attribute capture
– SCSI inquiry, log page, and self-test command usage
– full-surface read/write scan with automatic bad-block remap where possible
– extraction of lifetime power-on hours, temperature history, and error statistics
• Example command-line scripts or GUI settings so I can click “go” and walk away
• A brief explanation of how to interpret each result and decide pass/fail
• Receive information, analysis and guide about specific manufacturer commands for this drives case (this can be treated as a separated project if agreed)
Some models examples: Seagate ST1800MM0129, ST900MM0168, ST300MM0006