Adaptec CDP-00277-01-A - Initializing Disk Drives; Rescanning Disk Drives; Secure Erasing Disk Drives; Stopping a Secure Erase

Initializing Disk Drives
If a disk drive appears grayed-out (unavailable for use in a new array), it may need to be initialized.
To begin initializing a disk drive, select Initialize Drives from the Logical Device Conguration menu.
You can initialize one drive or multiple drives. If an error occurs during initialization, the message
“Initializing drives...FAILED x of n” is displayed. Press Enter to see a list of drives that failed to initialize.
Press Esc to continue.
Caution: Do not initialize a disk drive that is part of an array. Initializing a disk drive
that's part of an array may make the array unusable. Back up all data from your disk
drive before you initialize it.
Rescanning Disk Drives
To begin rescanning a disk drive, select Rescan Drives from the Logical Device Conguration menu.
Secure Erasing Disk Drives
When you perform a secure erase on a disk drive, all data on that disk drive is completely and irretrievably
eradicated. Secure erase performs three distinct writing passes to the disk drive being erased—it does
not just write zeros.
Performing a secure erase takes up to six times longer than clearing (or zeroing) a disk drive; on a 2TB
or 3TB drive, often it takes hours, possibly as long as a day! You may want to perform a secure erase
only on disk drives that contain condential or classied information.
Note: To erase (or zero) a disk drive with non-classied information, you may choose
to format it (see Formatting and Verifying Disk Drives on page 77) instead, or initialize
it using maxView Storage Manager—both options take much less time than the secure
erase option.
To begin a secure erase, select Secure Erase from the Logical Device Conguration menu, then select
Y (yes). To return to the main Logical Device Conguration menu once the secure erase has begun, press
Esc.
Note: For newer SATA drives, you can choose to perform a Secure ATA Erase, which
implements the secure erase feature at the drive rmware level. To start a Secure
ATA Erase, select a SATA drive, then type Ctrl-S to open the Secure ATA Erase dialog.
You will see this dialog only if the drive supports Secure ATA Erase.
The selected disk drive(s) cannot be used until the erase is complete.
Stopping a Secure Erase
To stop a secure erase in progress:
1. In the Logical Device Conguration menu, select Secure Erase.
2. Select the disk drive being secure erased, then press Ctrl+Q.
The secure erase stops and you return to the main Logical Device Conguration menu.
Uninitializing Disk Drives
Uninitializes one or more physical drives so that they can be used in HBA mode (see General Controller
Settings on page 75). This option clears Adaptec meta-data and any OS partitions from a drive. Drives
can uninitialized only if they are not part of any array.
To begin uninitializing a disk drive, select Uninitialize Drives from the Logical Device Conguration menu,
then type Y to continue.
Using the ARC Utility to Modify Controller Settings
The ARC Controller Settings tool allows you to modify the settings of your controller and the disk drives
connected to it.
74Proprietary and Condential to PMC-Sierra, Inc.
Document No.: CDP-00277-01-A Rev. A, Issue:
Serial Attached SCSI RAID Controllers Installation and User's Guide