A storage system including a memory unit having a disk management program, plural disk controllers each having a SAS port which can be attached to either a SAS disk drive or a SATA disk drive, and a LAN port which communicates with a user interface program in a management console. Upon receiving a request from the user interface program requesting what kinds of disk drives are attached to the disk controllers, the disk management program communicates with each disk controller to determine what kind of disk drive is attached to the disk controller, selects based on a result an appropriate protocol for the disk drive, sends a request to the disk controller to retrieve detailed information of the disk drive using the selected protocol, and sends the detailed information received from the disk controller back to the user interface program for display on a monitor of the management console