my eXPeriences

Changing Seagate EXOS sector size on Linux

Credit goes to https://www.synoforum.com/resources/upgrading-firmware-and-changing-sector-size-on-seagate-hdds-while-installed-in-your-synology-nas.182/

NOTE: Do not use USB enclosures - they mostly do not support 4k sector sizes.

Updating the firmware is optional (if it's up-to-date for example), in which case skip steps 3-8.

1. Download latest Seagate SeaChest application: We only need the SeaChest Lite edition.

   • Website: https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/software/seachest/
   • Direct: https://support.seagate.com/seachest/SeaChestLite.zip

2. Extract Linux application from SeaChest zip file: Open the "SeaChestLite.zip" file, go to the "Lin64\Non-RAID" folder, and copy "SeaChest_Lite_x86_64-alpine-linux-musl_static".

3. Download latest firmware for Seagate HDDs: Go to the following URL, and enter the serial number off your Seagate HDD to search for the latest firmware for your drive model.

   • Website: https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html

4. Extract firmware files: Open the firmware zip file you downloaded, and go to the "Firmware" folder. Copy the firmware files to the same folder:

   EN-SN04.CFS
   EvansExosX16SATA-STD-512E-SN04.LOD

5. Scan / list the drives:

   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -s

6. Upgrade firmware on installed Seagate HDDs:

   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 --downloadFW EvansExosX16SATA-STD-512E-SN04.LOD
   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 --downloadFW EvansExosX16SATA-STD-512E-SN04.LOD
   ...

7. Check the Seagate HDDs are displaying firmware installed:

   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -s

8. Shutdown, power-off then start again.

9. Check the Sector Size on your Seagate HDDs.

   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 -i | grep Size
   sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 -i | grep Size
   ...

10. Do a quick check to ensure your Seagate drives support both 512 and 4096 sector sizes:

    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 --showSupportedFormats
    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 --showSupportedFormats
    ...

11. BEFORE converting sector size, do a quick health check on each of the Seagate drives:

    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 --shortDST --poll
    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 --shortDST --poll
    ...

12. Convert the 512 byte sector size to 4096 bytes:

    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 --setSectorSize 4096 --confirm this-will-erase-data
    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 --setSectorSize 4096 --confirm this-will-erase-data
    ...

    WARNING: The process will wait 30 seconds in case you want to cancel the operation - it is destructive.

13. Shutdown, power-off then start again.

14. It is recommended to do another health check on your drives before copying your data back and moving into production mode.

    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg0 --shortDST --poll
    sudo ./SeaChest_Lite -d /dev/sg1 --shortDST --poll
    ...

Don't know what will come here, let's wait and see... But in the first instance it will be a login box (for myself):

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