HDT 3.0, Adaptec SCSI cards and RAID volumes: not a good mix

Leland November reports problems with FWB's Hard Disk ToolKit 3.0 and the Adaptec 2940 UW SCSI card with RAID volumes. The symptom is an inability to mount the drives. He writes: "I was able to get the drives back only by first disconnecting the Adaptec card and downgrading to RTK 2.0.7 drivers on my two internal bus 0 drives. I was then able to shut down and attach one of the former RAID disk drives at a time to the Adaptec card and initialize each as a separate volume, with RTK 2.0.7 drivers and recreate the RAID with RTK 2.0.7 and restore my data from tape. I lost a day's productivity in the process."

Of relevance, the Read Me file for HDT 3.0 states:

"Adaptec cards and RAID arrays: We have discovered a conflict with creating RAID arrays with some Adaptec cards. There are no problems with creating simple volumes. The RAID conflicts go away when the card's firmware is updated to 4.0 or later, available on Adaptec's Web site." [Note: Leland could not find any 4.0 version on the Web site.]

Update: Mark Hurlow (Product Manager for Hard Disk ToolKit) writes: "The firmware version should have said 1.02f3 instead of 4.0. It can be downloaded from Adaptec's Web site. Even though it carries the the description 'Upgrade PowerDomain 2940U2W ONLY upgrade to firmware 1.02f3,' it also works with the 2940UW Card."

Update: Several readers (starting with Dan Kuraisa) claim that the update refused to flash the ROM on the card, contrary to what Mr. Harlow states.