Welcome to Seagate's openSeaChest_Format diagnostic software.

Storage products which utilize the SAS, SCSI or Fibre Channel interfaces are
able to perform a full low-level media format in the field.  These three
storage interfaces use, in generic terms, the SCSI command set.  Unlike SATA,
which is low-level formatted only at the factory, SCSI command devices are able
to rescan the surface of the media while managing defective sectors (if any)
and even change the drive sector size.  The SCSI Format Unit command offers
many specialty options to accommodate a variety of conditions and to fine tune
the procedure.

Some RAID adapters, for example, use 520 byte sectors rather than the common
512 size.  Because of this ability to change to a new sector size (also called
block size), the resulting number of total sectors (Logical Block Addresses or
LBAs) on a drive can vary and the actual final count is determined at the end
of the format.  In simple terms, if the new sector size is twice a large as the
previous format then the new count of sectors is half of what it was.

The SCSI Format Unit command is a drive background command which means that
once the command is accepted by the drive it then goes offline to manage the
task with no overhead impact to the host system.  The drive will report
formatting progress in 1% increments.

Important note: Once a Format Unit command has begun on a device then it must
be allowed to complete to be usable again.  If the format is interrupted then
it will subsequently report a  corrupted format with Sense Key "03-31".  The
only way to clear a corrupted format error is to start again and allow it to
finish.

        03h - Medium error. The command was terminated with a non-recoverable
        error condition, probably caused by a flaw in the media or an error in
        the recorded data.
        31h - The media format is corrupted.

Please see the section below "About the SCSI Format Unit Command" for
additional information.

NOTE: openSeaChest_Format may not be fully functional on non-Seagate drives.

This User Guide file contains important information about SeaChest_FormatUnit.
Please read this entire file before using this software.

If this is your drive, you should always keep a current backup of your
important data.

If this is not your drive and the original owner has no claim of ownership to
it or the data stored on it, then you may still be responsible for the data in
your possession.   To protect yourself from potential liability and to protect
the previous owner's privacy, you should remove all data by performing a data
erasure on this drive.

Be very careful because using openSeaChest_Format will cause data loss. Seagate
is not responsible for lost user data.

Usage - Linux (run with sudo)
=============================
        openSeaChest_Format [-d <sg_device>] {arguments} {options}

Examples - Linux
================
        sudo openSeaChest_Format --scan
        sudo openSeaChest_Format -d /dev/sg2 -i
        sudo openSeaChest_Format --device /dev/sg1 --showSupportedFormats

Usage - Windows (run as administrator)
======================================
        openSeaChest_Format [-d <PD_device>] {arguments} {options}

Examples - Windows
==================
        openSeaChest_Format --scan
        openSeaChest_Format -d PD2 -i
        openSeaChest_Format --device PD1 --showSupportedFormats

