Introducing Data Deals! Three exclusive discounts, every Tuesday and Thursday, for 24 hours* only. Shop now | Keep me notified
Open
This article is for informational purposes only and no longer being updated by Seagate.

SCSI Sense Key Chart

Table of explanations of SCSI sense key data.


The SCSI Request Sense command is used to obtain sense data (error information) from a target device.

Disc Drive Sense Keys
SCSI Disk Drive Sense Keys
Key Sense Key Description
0h
No Sense - Indicates there is no specific Sense Key information to be reported for the disc drive. This would be the case for a successful command or when the ILI bit is one.
1h
Recovered Error - Indicates the last command completed successfully with some recovery action performed by the disc drive. When multiple recovered errors occur, the last error that occurred is reported by the additional sense bytes. For some Mode settings, the last command may have terminated before completing.
2h
 Not Ready - Indicates the logical unit addressed cannot be accessed. Operator intervention may be required to correct this condition.
3h
Medium Error - Indicates the command terminated with a nonrecovered error condition, probably caused by a flaw in the medium or an error in the recorded data.
4h
Hardware Error - Indicates the disc drive detected a nonrecoverable hardware failure while performing the command or during a self test. This includes SCSI interface parity error, controller failure or device failure.
5h
Illegal Request - Indicates an illegal parameter in the command descriptor block or in the additional parameters supplied as data for some commands (Format Unit, Mode Select, and so forth). If the disc drive detects an invalid parameter in the Command Descriptor Block, it shall terminate the command without altering the medium. If the disc drive detects an invalid parameter in the additional parameters supplied as data, the disc drive may have already altered the medium. This sense key may also indicate that an invalid IDENTIFY message was received. This could also indicate an attempt to write past the last logical block.
6h
Unit Attention - Indicates the disc drive may have been reset.
7h
Data Protect - Indicates that a command that reads or writes the medium was attempted on a block that is protected from this operation. The read or write operation is not performed.
9h
Firmware Error - Vendor specific sense key.
Bh
Aborted Command - Indicates the disc drive aborted the command. The initiator may be able to recover by trying the command again.
Ch
Equal - Indicates a SEARCH DATA command has satisfied an equal comparison.
Dh
Volume Overflow - Indicates a buffered peripheral device has reached the end of medium partition and data remains in the buffer that has not been written to the medium.
Eh
Miscompare - Indicates that the source data did not match the data read from the medium.


  1. *Data Deals effective for 24 hours only (Tuesdays 5:00 AM to Wednesdays 4:59 AM Pacific & Thursdays 5:00 AM to Friday 4:59 AM Pacific).