One more hopefully happy update:

Based on everything you’ve shown so far in the information you have given, the most probable cause is that the drive was formatted with T10 DIF / Protection Information enabled (PROTECT=1), and you are now accessing it through a controller path that does not support DIF.

This is a very common failure mode with enterprise SAS drives and sg_format.

What this means in practice:

• PROTECT=1 = the drive was formatted with DIF Type 1
• Logical blocks are no longer plain 512/4096 bytes (e.g. 520/528 instead)
• The HBA + driver must explicitly support T10 PI
• If the controller does not support DIF, the drive may:
  • Be detected
  • But fail all I/O
  • Appear “dead” even though it is healthy

This is not bricking. It is a configuration mismatch.

How to fix it (most reliable path)

You need to connect the drive to a DIF-capable SAS HBA (LSI/Broadcom, same type as originally used if possible).
Best option is to do this on the original hardware, even via a USB live Linux environment.

Once the drive is on a T10-capable controller, reformat it with protection disabled.

Example (this will ERASE the drive and might take a LONG time to complete):

sudo sg_format –format –size=512 –fmtpinfo=0 –pfu=0 /dev/sdX

Key flags:

• –fmtpinfo=0 → disables DIF / PROTECT
• –size=512 (or 4096 if you prefer standard 4K)
• –pfu=0 (disables PROTECTION flag, your GPT forgot to include this which actually disables the protection)
• Use the correct /dev/sdX

After this completes and the system is power-cycled, the drive should behave like a normal disk again on non-DIF controllers.

Important notes

• sg_format alone almost never permanently damages SAS drives
• This exact scenario happens frequently when drives are moved between controllers
• Until tested on a DIF-capable HBA, there is no evidence of permanent failure

If you cannot access a T10-capable controller, the drive may remain unusable on that system, but still be perfectly recoverable elsewhere.

A case of a user with a similar problem that got it fixed after a new format (found it on Google):

https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/drives-formatted-with-type-1-protection-eventually-lead-to-data-loss.86007/