Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 6:35 PM Mark Knecht  > wrote:
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > I've looked for a adapter.  I couldn't find one.  That's why I
> connected to a old rig that had a set of molex cables I could use. 
> Luckily I had a molex to sata adapter.  Do you know what they are
> called so I know what to search for?  I'd buy a dozen or so just to
> have extras laying around.  I just can't find them.  I suspect I'm
> using the wrong search terms.
> > >
> > > Do new motherboards support that PWDIS feature?  I'm looking at
> the ASUS Prime X670-P mobo and I can't find anything that says what
> version of SATA it has or about the PWDIS option.  I assume it doesn't
> have it but assuming means you can be wrong.  I haven't looked at the
> new power supply cables yet.  I've bought ATX style ones recently
> tho.  Look the same as old ones to me.
> > >
> > > Dale
> > >
> > > :-)  :-)
> >
> > I am not sure but I think Molex to SATA Power gets you in the ballpark?
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/Power-Cable-Adapter-Female-8-inch/dp/B07BQFKTG7
> >
> >
> https://www.amazon.com/Duttek-Female-Adapter-Connector-Drives/dp/B09BJ1J24M
> >
> > If these are close then it wouldn't cost a lot to try one out. (<$10)
>
>
> Sorry, I forgot to address your second question.
>
> It is my understanding - good or bad I'll leave it to you - that newer
> motherboards
> are moving toward drive power supplied through the motherboard and not
> through our old-style power supply cables. I don't think this is in
> the market
> yet in any big way, but when it arrives it would allow PWDIS to be
> controlled through
> software which then makes it easier to do 'hot swap' because the drive
> isn't hot
> when power is disabled. I suspect this is more of a server farm type
> issue and 
> desktop machine users wouldn't be doing this because the form factor
> of the 
> machine itself isn't set up for that. However if you were to get some
> sort of a 
> drive cage which you connected to using wider SATA specifications then
> you could
> disable power to one drive and swap it out without having to power the
> machine down.
>
> All supposition on my part. I'll leave it to you to dig deeper if you
> care. (I don't !)
>
> Best wish, good luck and happy hunting,
> Mark


I've got some of the cables like in your links.  I was hoping they made
a little short thing like in your second link that I can plug into the
drive then plug a SATA power connector to but it doesn't connect pin 3
to anything.  It stays SATA basically, no molex needed.  To be honest, I
only have 4 wires on my power cable going to the SATA connector.  The
ones I see with the 5th wire are the ones with PWDIS.  Thing is, I'd
don't know how it is connected inside the connector.  From my
understanding, the 5v wire is connected to several pins including 1
through 3.  That's what makes it not work.  I think.  That may vary from
one power supply maker to another and may even vary between models of
the same maker. 

In a way, that sounds interesting about the new way.  For those who like
to show off their rigs, they would like that because it would result in
less cable clutter.  To be honest, I'm not against the PWDIS feature. 
For some use cases, it is a good idea.  It just should have been made
backward compatible.  Right now, I have one case with about 10 drives in
it.  I'd like to be able to disable a drive before unplugging it.  If my
system supported PWDIS, I'd sure use it and be glad to have it.  My new
Fractal case holds 18 drives I think.  I can add cages which may make it
hold even more drives.  Having the PWDIS feature would be nice.  I could
unmount a drive, disable it, then unplug and remove it and be almost the
same as doing so when the system is shutdown completely.  It's a good
idea, just needed to be implemented better. 

For those following this, the hard drive made it back to the seller. 
When they tested the drive, it was bad.  They got the same as I did in
the very old rig with the molex to SATA cable.  I suspect it was a drive
with the PWDIS feature and it turned out it was also bad.  I did order
another drive.  I ordered one I got before that works but I also
included a note that if the drive has the PWDIS feature, to cancel the
order and let me know what drives they carry that don't have that feature. 

I just wish there was a very easy way to find out which drives have the
PWDIS feature and which ones don't.  I'm beginning to wonder if there
really is a way other than plugging it up and seeing of it comes on. 

All this because they didn't make something backward compatible.  o_O

Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[mad . scientist . at . large]

I have a lot of drives like that.  Simplest solution is to cut the orange wire 
on the drive power cable.  Only down side is that some ssd may require the 3.3V 
power so you might not want to modify all the power cables.  I just had to do 
this so my sas drives would spin up.  Before I did it the drives didn't even 
show up in the bios.  (and I just got 10 of these used, they are going into a 
raid 6 array+spares).  I've been making this mod for over 10 years.

--"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their 
political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political 
democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege." 
Tommy Douglas




May 9, 2024, 15:12 by rdalek1...@gmail.com:

> Dale wrote:
>
>>
>> Now to avoid buying another one of these drives again.  I really wish
>> sellers who should know would put in the description or list of features
>> that the drive has PWDIS.  After all, most buyers of small quantities of
>> drives likely can't use that feature.  The ones who do likely buy in
>> bulk since they putting them in large systems. 
>>
>> Thanks to all.  I knew there would be someone on this list who actually
>> had one of these things. 
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-) 
>>
>
>
> I'm looking at buying another drive.  I'm trying to avoid buying one
> with the PWDIS pin.  I'm looking at the specs to see if it says anything
> about the feature, there or not there.  I'm not seeing anything.  This
> is what I'm looking at. 
>
> https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/exos-x16-DS2011-1-1904US-en_US.pdf
>
> Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> missing it?  Or is there no way to really know? 
>
> Thanks. 
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-) 
>

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 6:35 PM Mark Knecht  wrote:
>
>
> >
> >
> > I've looked for a adapter.  I couldn't find one.  That's why I
connected to a old rig that had a set of molex cables I could use.  Luckily
I had a molex to sata adapter.  Do you know what they are called so I know
what to search for?  I'd buy a dozen or so just to have extras laying
around.  I just can't find them.  I suspect I'm using the wrong search
terms.
> >
> > Do new motherboards support that PWDIS feature?  I'm looking at the
ASUS Prime X670-P mobo and I can't find anything that says what version of
SATA it has or about the PWDIS option.  I assume it doesn't have it but
assuming means you can be wrong.  I haven't looked at the new power supply
cables yet.  I've bought ATX style ones recently tho.  Look the same as old
ones to me.
> >
> > Dale
> >
> > :-)  :-)
>
> I am not sure but I think Molex to SATA Power gets you in the ballpark?
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Power-Cable-Adapter-Female-8-inch/dp/B07BQFKTG7
>
>
https://www.amazon.com/Duttek-Female-Adapter-Connector-Drives/dp/B09BJ1J24M
>
> If these are close then it wouldn't cost a lot to try one out. (<$10)

>
Sorry, I forgot to address your second question.

It is my understanding - good or bad I'll leave it to you - that newer
motherboards
are moving toward drive power supplied through the motherboard and not
through our old-style power supply cables. I don't think this is in the
market
yet in any big way, but when it arrives it would allow PWDIS to be
controlled through
software which then makes it easier to do 'hot swap' because the drive
isn't hot
when power is disabled. I suspect this is more of a server farm type issue
and
desktop machine users wouldn't be doing this because the form factor of the
machine itself isn't set up for that. However if you were to get some sort
of a
drive cage which you connected to using wider SATA specifications then you
could
disable power to one drive and swap it out without having to power the
machine down.

All supposition on my part. I'll leave it to you to dig deeper if you care.
(I don't !)

Best wish, good luck and happy hunting,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Mark Knecht]

>
>
> I've looked for a adapter.  I couldn't find one.  That's why I connected
to a old rig that had a set of molex cables I could use.  Luckily I had a
molex to sata adapter.  Do you know what they are called so I know what to
search for?  I'd buy a dozen or so just to have extras laying around.  I
just can't find them.  I suspect I'm using the wrong search terms.
>
> Do new motherboards support that PWDIS feature?  I'm looking at the ASUS
Prime X670-P mobo and I can't find anything that says what version of SATA
it has or about the PWDIS option.  I assume it doesn't have it but assuming
means you can be wrong.  I haven't looked at the new power supply cables
yet.  I've bought ATX style ones recently tho.  Look the same as old ones
to me.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)

I am not sure but I think Molex to SATA Power gets you in the ballpark?

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Cable-Adapter-Female-8-inch/dp/B07BQFKTG7

https://www.amazon.com/Duttek-Female-Adapter-Connector-Drives/dp/B09BJ1J24M

If these are close then it wouldn't cost a lot to try one out. (<$10)

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 4:31 PM Dale  > wrote:
> >
> > Dale wrote:
> >
> > Mark Knecht wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale  > wrote:
> > 
> > > Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> > > doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> > > missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?
> >
> > I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be
> > don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC.
> >
> > I have done NO online research to take this with less than a
> > grain of salt.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
> >
> > Your reply gave me a clue.  I did a search for sata in the docs and
> found this for both drives I linked to in other post.
> >
> >
> > Exos X18 SATA drives incorporate connectors which enable users to
> hot plug these drives in accordance with the
> > Serial ATA Revision 3.3 specification.
> >
> >
> > I suspect that means it has the PWDIS pin.  You agree?  If you open
> the links to pdf docs in other reply, search for "Hot-Plug
> compatibility" and see what it says.  It was the second hit for me.
> >
> > Why can't they label those drives with something that makes it
> clear.  Print 'SATA V3.3', 'hardware reset enabled' or something that
> makes it easy instead of sticking it in a 50 something page document. 
> At least we have the "find" feature on most pdf viewers.  Another
> option, throw a adapter in the box for those who can't have that feature.
> >
> > Looks like both drives I'm looking at might not work for me.  My
> goal in this thread, figure out what to look for so that I avoid
> buying a drive that don't work.  I got the difference in the power
> cable at least.  Now to figure it out without being able to see the drive.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > Dale
> >
> > :-)  :-)
> >
> >
> >
> > I thought of something else.  I looked at drives I bought in the
> past.  I have a model ST16000NM000J and it works but it says it is
> SATA v3.3.  So, saying it is SATA v3.3 doesn't distinguish between
> having or not having the PWDIS feature.  It just means it is possible.
> >
> > Crap.  I thought I was onto something.  :(
> >
> > Dale
> >
> > :-)  :-)
> >
> > P. S.  Since I have one of those already, I'll buy that one again. 
> ROFL
>
> Dale,
>    You have raised a number of issues. I will speak as a retired Silicon 
> Valley engineer who worked on IEEE and PCI-related specifications.
> (PCI-X, 1394b and a few things that never made it to market)
>
> 1) Probably most important, the disk drive manufacturers are not 
> focused on those of us who fiddle with old hardware. They are 
> designing and developing products for the mass market which 
> basically means new machines. These drives do into data farms
> and new computers. 
>

This is very true.  If they were going to change the SATA power
connector pin assignment, they should have made it backward compatible. 
It would be easy enough.  Pin high, as it is when hooked to a old cable,
enables the drive.  Pin low disables or resets the drive.  That way no
matter what you connect it to, it works.  Why they didn't think of that,
I'd think it is about making money.  Just a thought.


> 2) The next issue is whether a new SATA-3.3 drive is even intended
> to work in a machine running old SATA spec. In the case of these
> SATA-3.3 drives there is a kluge connector/adapter cable that hooks
> to your existing SATA controller but has a PC power supply dongle
> so that the SATA-3.3 drive's PWDIS pin is 'hopefully' driven
> correctly. Whether that works does depend on the timing of your
> motherboard and the power supply, but it 'hopefully' works.
>
>    I don't know if this information is going to be helpful to your 
> immediate situation but possibly it will help you going forward
> when you are considering upgrading an old machine vs what
> I have done a couple of times is to purchase a new or used
> low-end motherboard so that my peripheral choices were 
> easier. (Such as now all of my DNS and Pi-Hole stuff running
> on an RP-5 vs an old x86-64 machine.)
>
> Best wishes and good luck,
> Mark


I've looked for a adapter.  I couldn't find one.  That's why I connected
to a old rig that had a set of molex cables I could use.  Luckily I had
a molex to sata adapter.  Do you know what they are called so I know
what to search for?  I'd buy a dozen or so just to have extras laying
around.  I just can't find them.  I suspect I'm using the wrong search
terms. 

Do new motherboards support that PWDIS feature?  I'm looking at the ASUS
Prime X670-P mobo and I can't find anything that says what version of
SATA it has or about the PWDIS option.  I assume it doesn't have it but
assuming means you can be wrong.  I haven't looked at the new power
supply cables yet.  I've bought ATX style ones recently tho.  Look the
same as old ones to me. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 4:31 PM Dale  wrote:
>
> Dale wrote:
>
> Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale  wrote:
> 
> > Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> > doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> > missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?
>
> I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be
> don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC.
>
> I have done NO online research to take this with less than a
> grain of salt.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> Your reply gave me a clue.  I did a search for sata in the docs and found
this for both drives I linked to in other post.
>
>
> Exos X18 SATA drives incorporate connectors which enable users to hot
plug these drives in accordance with the
> Serial ATA Revision 3.3 specification.
>
>
> I suspect that means it has the PWDIS pin.  You agree?  If you open the
links to pdf docs in other reply, search for "Hot-Plug compatibility" and
see what it says.  It was the second hit for me.
>
> Why can't they label those drives with something that makes it clear.
Print 'SATA V3.3', 'hardware reset enabled' or something that makes it easy
instead of sticking it in a 50 something page document.  At least we have
the "find" feature on most pdf viewers.  Another option, throw a adapter in
the box for those who can't have that feature.
>
> Looks like both drives I'm looking at might not work for me.  My goal in
this thread, figure out what to look for so that I avoid buying a drive
that don't work.  I got the difference in the power cable at least.  Now to
figure it out without being able to see the drive.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>
>
>
> I thought of something else.  I looked at drives I bought in the past.  I
have a model ST16000NM000J and it works but it says it is SATA v3.3.  So,
saying it is SATA v3.3 doesn't distinguish between having or not having the
PWDIS feature.  It just means it is possible.
>
> Crap.  I thought I was onto something.  :(
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>
> P. S.  Since I have one of those already, I'll buy that one again.  ROFL

Dale,
   You have raised a number of issues. I will speak as a retired Silicon
Valley engineer who worked on IEEE and PCI-related specifications.
(PCI-X, 1394b and a few things that never made it to market)

1) Probably most important, the disk drive manufacturers are not
focused on those of us who fiddle with old hardware. They are
designing and developing products for the mass market which
basically means new machines. These drives do into data farms
and new computers.

2) The next issue is whether a new SATA-3.3 drive is even intended
to work in a machine running old SATA spec. In the case of these
SATA-3.3 drives there is a kluge connector/adapter cable that hooks
to your existing SATA controller but has a PC power supply dongle
so that the SATA-3.3 drive's PWDIS pin is 'hopefully' driven
correctly. Whether that works does depend on the timing of your
motherboard and the power supply, but it 'hopefully' works.

   I don't know if this information is going to be helpful to your
immediate situation but possibly it will help you going forward
when you are considering upgrading an old machine vs what
I have done a couple of times is to purchase a new or used
low-end motherboard so that my peripheral choices were
easier. (Such as now all of my DNS and Pi-Hole stuff running
on an RP-5 vs an old x86-64 machine.)

Best wishes and good luck,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Dale wrote:
> Mark Knecht wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale > > wrote:
>> 
>> > Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
>> > doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
>> > missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?
>>
>> I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be
>> don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC.
>>
>> I have done NO online research to take this with less than a 
>> grain of salt.
>>
>> Mark
>
>
> Your reply gave me a clue.  I did a search for sata in the docs and
> found this for both drives I linked to in other post.
>
>
> Exos X18 SATA drives incorporate connectors which enable users to hot
> plug these drives in accordance with the
> Serial ATA Revision 3.3 specification. 
>
>
> I suspect that means it has the PWDIS pin.  You agree?  If you open
> the links to pdf docs in other reply, search for "Hot-Plug
> compatibility" and see what it says.  It was the second hit for me. 
>
> Why can't they label those drives with something that makes it clear. 
> Print 'SATA V3.3', 'hardware reset enabled' or something that makes it
> easy instead of sticking it in a 50 something page document.  At least
> we have the "find" feature on most pdf viewers.  Another option, throw
> a adapter in the box for those who can't have that feature. 
>
> Looks like both drives I'm looking at might not work for me.  My goal
> in this thread, figure out what to look for so that I avoid buying a
> drive that don't work.  I got the difference in the power cable at
> least.  Now to figure it out without being able to see the drive.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-) 


I thought of something else.  I looked at drives I bought in the past. 
I have a model ST16000NM000J and it works but it says it is SATA v3.3. 
So, saying it is SATA v3.3 doesn't distinguish between having or not
having the PWDIS feature.  It just means it is possible.

Crap.  I thought I was onto something.  :(

Dale

:-)  :-) 

P. S.  Since I have one of those already, I'll buy that one again.  ROFL 

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale  > wrote:
> 
> > Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> > doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> > missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?
>
> I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be
> don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC.
>
> I have done NO online research to take this with less than a 
> grain of salt.
>
> Mark


Your reply gave me a clue.  I did a search for sata in the docs and
found this for both drives I linked to in other post.


Exos X18 SATA drives incorporate connectors which enable users to hot
plug these drives in accordance with the
Serial ATA Revision 3.3 specification. 


I suspect that means it has the PWDIS pin.  You agree?  If you open the
links to pdf docs in other reply, search for "Hot-Plug compatibility"
and see what it says.  It was the second hit for me. 

Why can't they label those drives with something that makes it clear. 
Print 'SATA V3.3', 'hardware reset enabled' or something that makes it
easy instead of sticking it in a 50 something page document.  At least
we have the "find" feature on most pdf viewers.  Another option, throw a
adapter in the box for those who can't have that feature. 

Looks like both drives I'm looking at might not work for me.  My goal in
this thread, figure out what to look for so that I avoid buying a drive
that don't work.  I got the difference in the power cable at least.  Now
to figure it out without being able to see the drive.

Thoughts?

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 2:12 PM Dale  wrote:

> Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?

I believe PWDIS is part of the SATA 3.3 spec so first filter would be
don't buy a SATA 3.3 drive for an old PC.

I have done NO online research to take this with less than a
grain of salt.

Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 5:12 PM Dale  wrote:
>> I'm looking at buying another drive.  I'm trying to avoid buying one
>> with the PWDIS pin.  I'm looking at the specs to see if it says anything
>> about the feature, there or not there.  I'm not seeing anything.  This
>> is what I'm looking at.
>>
>> https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/exos-x16-DS2011-1-1904US-en_US.pdf
>>
>> Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
>> doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
>> missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?
> I think it would be labeled as such.  That is for a genuine retail
> version of the drive with retail labeling.
>
> So if you get the drive and it has the pretty Exos logo and green
> colors and the model number that matches the datasheet and all that
> stuff, then it probably won't have issues.
>
> However, if you're buying something off ebay, and the drive just has a
> plain white label, and a model number that doesn't actually match the
> datasheet, but some random webpage or reddit post assures you that it
> is the same thing, well, it probably is the same thing, but it might
> very well have that power issue.
>
> Those shucked drives generally come from USB enclosures, and the drive
> on the inside might be a rebranded Exos with alternative firmware/etc,
> but the label isn't going to actually say that, and the package will
> say "EasyStore USB Drive" or whatever it is sold as.  If you use it
> the way it is sold, then you again won't have issues since its
> internal USB HBA will do the right thing.  It is just that when you
> rip open the box that all bets are off.
>
> The actual drives sold for enterprise use generally aren't sold in
> retail packaging as I understand it.  To get one of those officially
> you need to buy them through a server vendor or some other
> enterprise-oriented partner, who probably has a nice sales person who
> will treat you to a free lunch while you talk about the PWDIS
> requirements of the $10M pallet of drives you're about to buy.
>


I found this. 

https://www.seagate.com/www-content/product-content/enterprise-hdd-fam/exos-x-16/en-us/docs/100845789j.pdf

If you scroll down to page 29, or search for Table 11, it says it has a
3.3V for pin 1 to pin 3.  Does that indicate it has the PWDIS feature? 
I'm buying these from a company that has server in the name.  I buy
drives of this type because of the way I use it.  It runs 24/7. 
Downtime is minimal here.  This is a link to the drives I'm looking at. 
I'm not sure which is best to be honest.  Opinions??

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124627725410

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304194684486

I'm interested in your thoughts on the PWDIS and if one of those drives
would be better for my use case.  Biggest thing, runs 24/7. 

Oh, is there a adapter that I can buy that fixes this?  I did a ebay
search but didn't find anything.  Maybe I used the wrong terms.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

P. S.  I'm considering using SAS controllers again.  Do you have links
that explains how drives are connected and such?  I'll likely continue
to use SATA drives since I have so many but may start buying SAS
drives.  I think both can be used depending on the cable.  From what
I've read, there is more than one way for a SAS controller to work. 
It's confusing at times. 

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Rich Freeman]

On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 5:12 PM Dale  wrote:
>
> I'm looking at buying another drive.  I'm trying to avoid buying one
> with the PWDIS pin.  I'm looking at the specs to see if it says anything
> about the feature, there or not there.  I'm not seeing anything.  This
> is what I'm looking at.
>
> https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/exos-x16-DS2011-1-1904US-en_US.pdf
>
> Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
> doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
> missing it?  Or is there no way to really know?

I think it would be labeled as such.  That is for a genuine retail
version of the drive with retail labeling.

So if you get the drive and it has the pretty Exos logo and green
colors and the model number that matches the datasheet and all that
stuff, then it probably won't have issues.

However, if you're buying something off ebay, and the drive just has a
plain white label, and a model number that doesn't actually match the
datasheet, but some random webpage or reddit post assures you that it
is the same thing, well, it probably is the same thing, but it might
very well have that power issue.

Those shucked drives generally come from USB enclosures, and the drive
on the inside might be a rebranded Exos with alternative firmware/etc,
but the label isn't going to actually say that, and the package will
say "EasyStore USB Drive" or whatever it is sold as.  If you use it
the way it is sold, then you again won't have issues since its
internal USB HBA will do the right thing.  It is just that when you
rip open the box that all bets are off.

The actual drives sold for enterprise use generally aren't sold in
retail packaging as I understand it.  To get one of those officially
you need to buy them through a server vendor or some other
enterprise-oriented partner, who probably has a nice sales person who
will treat you to a free lunch while you talk about the PWDIS
requirements of the $10M pallet of drives you're about to buy.

-- 
Rich

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive and PWDIS or pin 3 power disable/reset.

[Dale]

Dale wrote:
>
> Now to avoid buying another one of these drives again.  I really wish
> sellers who should know would put in the description or list of features
> that the drive has PWDIS.  After all, most buyers of small quantities of
> drives likely can't use that feature.  The ones who do likely buy in
> bulk since they putting them in large systems. 
>
> Thanks to all.  I knew there would be someone on this list who actually
> had one of these things. 
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-) 
>


I'm looking at buying another drive.  I'm trying to avoid buying one
with the PWDIS pin.  I'm looking at the specs to see if it says anything
about the feature, there or not there.  I'm not seeing anything.  This
is what I'm looking at. 

https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/exos-x16-DS2011-1-1904US-en_US.pdf

Can someone tell me how to know when a drive has PWDIS and when it
doesn't?  Is there some term for it that shows in the specs and I'm
missing it?  Or is there no way to really know? 

Thanks. 

Dale

:-)  :-)