Adaptec RAID 31205 controller not detecting drives

[ScottFern]

I just installed an Adaptec 31205 Raid controller into my file server, and I bought generic mini-sas to sata cables for my hard drives.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/support/raid/sas_raid/SAS-31205/


I have 5 x SAMSUNG HD154UI 1.5TB drives connect to the raid controller, but in Raid bios it does not detect any of the drives. I even tried hooking up 2 different Hitachi sata hard drives and nothing.

Now, the only constant I can think of is that all 7 of the drives have data/volume/old raid array on them. Would this be reason the drives would not detect?

I can only think of three reasons why the drives are not coming up?

1) generic mini-sas to sata cables not working/incompatible

2) The fact there is data/volume/raid config on all 7 drives and none are unallocated

3) The drives are just not supported by the raid controller

Any help at all would be appreciated.

Thanks guys!

 

[ScottFern]

I am starting to think its the generic mini-sas cable? Does that make any sense?

 

[ScottFern]

I figured out the issue. My OFFICIAL Adaptec Mini-SAS to SATA cable arrived this afternoon and now the drives are detected!!! Last time I ever buy generic mini-sas cables!

 

[yinan]

I kinda miss the days when Adaptec was good. Now it seems like they have slacked off/given up. None of my work(500+) or home servers have anything Adaptec in them.

 

[fleshconsumed]

It is still good. They might not be the fastest controllers (really depends on who's testing, I've seen it go either way), but they are still plenty fast, reliable, have better compatibility than competitors and have really good support for last gen hardware unlike 3Ware for example that tend to drop support for last gen as soon as the new one is out.

 

[ScottFern]

It is still good. They might not be the fastest controllers (really depends on who's testing, I've seen it go either way), but they are still plenty fast, reliable, have better compatibility than competitors and have really good support for last gen hardware unlike 3Ware for example that tend to drop support for last gen as soon as the new one is out.

Yeah, I can't totally blame them for their card not seeing a $13 generic mini-sas to sata cable. I was able to open a trouble ticket ONLINE with Adaptec and a support engineer got back to me within 48 hours. My other option was to open a phone ticket for $199, no thank you!