Dell 1950 Hard Drives

Installing System Components 75

Hard Drives

This subsection describes how to install and configure SAS or SATA hard drives in the system's internal

hard-drive bays.

Your system features the optio n of two 3.5-inch (SAS/SATA) internal hard-drive bays or four

2.5-inch (SAS only) internal hard-drive bays that accomm odate up to either two or four hard drives. All drives

connect to the system board through one of two optional backplane boards.

NOTE: Depending on the hard drive configuration you ordered, your hard drive(s) may come with a drive

interposer that allows your SATA drive to attach to the SAS connector on the backplane.

Hard drives are supplied in special hot-pluggable drive carriers that fit in the hard-drive bays. Depending on

your configuration, you received one of the follow ing two drive carrier types:

• SATA drive carrier — Usable only with a SATA hard drive.

• SATAu drive carrier — Usable with either a SAS hard drive or a SATA hard drive with a universal

interposer card. The interposer card provides enhanced functionality that makes the SATA hard drive

usable in some storage systems.

NOTICE: Before you attempt to remove or install a drive while the system is running, see the documentation for

the optional SAS RAID daughter card to ensure that the host adapter is configured correctly to support hot-

pluggable drive removal and insertion.

NOTE: It is recommended that you use only drives that have been tested and approved for use with the SAS

backplane board.

You may need to use different program s than those provided with the operat ing system to partition and format

SAS or SATA hard drives.

NOTICE: Do not turn off or reboot your system while the drive is being formatted. Doing so can cause a drive

failure.

When you format a high- capacity hard drive, allow enough tim e for the formatting to be completed. Long

format times for these drives are normal. A 9-GB hard drive, for example, can take up to 2.5 hours to format.

NOTICE: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty hard-drive bays must have drive blanks installed. If you

remove a hard-drive carrier from the system and do not reinstall it, you must replace the carrier with a drive bl ank.

The process for removing a drive blank depends on whether your system is confi gured with 3.5-inch or 2.5-

inch hard drives.

For 3.5-inch hard drive configurations:

Remove the front bezel, if attached. See "Removing and Rep lacing the Front Bezel" on page 45.

Insert your finger under the shr oude d end of the blan k and press in on the latch to eject the blank outward

from the bay.

Pry the ends of the blank outw ard until the blank is free.