I’m in the process of selling a VMware Server Lab build that has outlived it’s usefulness. Priorities have changed, and when you can sell a parted out server for the cost of a home insulation job or a new heating system, it’s time to do that.
I came across a unique situation, I needed to verify health of my HGST HUSML4040ASS600 400GB SAS Hard Drives, but how do you do that? I grabbed my USB to SATA adapter and used a Windows Program like HDSentinel or CrystalDiskInfo. Unfortunately that doesn’t work because the SAS to Sata Adapters doesn’t allow a connection. Same with my SATA HDD Dock.
Notice the Prongs on the end of the Adapter. It prevents me from plugging it in. 
I figured I’d plug in the drives into a motherboard and off I go. How about the SAS Controller, still no go. Okay, lets try a new system. Still no, go. Okay getting annoyed now, let’s try my HBA in passthrough mode. Here we go success!
So how did I do it? It’s simple, GParted and the Command Line.
I won’t go into detail how I was able to create a GParted Live USB as its detailed on their page. I went the UNetBootin route on Windows 10 and booted from my Storage Server via IPMI.
Once booted, I fired up the Terminal and proceeded to figure out what the command was to get the required SMART Information.
Eventually I received the information I needed. Essentially the command outputs all information for the Device /dev/sdX where X is the drive letter indicated by Linux.
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX
The command output the following
Hopefully this will save someone the two hours it took me of digging and searching for a Utility that worked for me.
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