Installing Drives: Dell™ PowerEdge™ 8450 Systems Installation and Troubleshooting Guide

Overview • Removing the Peripherals Bay • Installing an IDE CD-ROM Drive • Connecting an External SCSI Tape Drive • Installing SCSI Hard-Disk Drives • Installing a Dell Host Adapter Card • Configuring the Boot Device

Overview

Your computer features a removable peripherals bay that incorporates four drive bays for installing the following types of drives:

• The two externally accessible drive bays hold a user-accessible, half-height, 5.25-inch device (typically an integrated drive electronics [IDE] CD-ROM drive) and a standard 3.5-inch diskette drive, which is controlled by the diskette drive controller on the system board.
• The hard-disk drive bays can hold one or two 1-inch small computer system interface (SCSI) hard-disk drives.

Figure 1. Peripherals Bay

The following subsections describe how to install these types of drives.

Removing the Peripherals Bay

To remove the peripherals bay from the computer, perform the following steps.
 
 

WARNING: Before installing the IDE CD-ROM drive, you must turn off the computer and disconnect it from the electrical outlet. For more information, refer to Safety First—For You and Your Computer.

CAUTION: See Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge.

1. Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from its electrical outlet.
2. Remove the front bezel.
3. Loosen the four captive screws securing the memory board cover to the front of the system chassis, then remove the cover (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Removing the Peripherals Bay

4. Remove the four screws securing the peripheral bay to the system chassis.
5. Slide the peripherals bay out of the system chassis.

Installing an IDE-CD ROM Drive

To install an IDE CD-ROM drive, perform the following steps.

1. If the drive does not already have drive rails attached, attach a drive rail to each side of the drive. Orient the drive rails as shown in Figure 3. Secure each drive rail to the drive with a screw in each of the lower slotted screw holes on the drive rail.

2. Remove the peripherals bay.
3. Slide the new drive into its bay until it snaps securely into place.
   If necessary, you can adjust drive alignment by repositioning one or both rails.
4. Connect the interface cable connector on the IDE-drive interface cable to the IDE-drive interface cable connector on the SCSI backplane board. See Figure 4.

5. Connect the DC power cable connector to the drive.
   Figure 5 shows the four-pin power input connector on the drive.The power connectors are keyed to avoid incorrect insertion; do not force two connectors together if they do not fit properly.

Figure 5. Power Input Connector

6. Slide the peripheral bay back into the system chassis and lock it in place with the two retention levers.
7. Replace the memory board cover and secure it using the four captive screws.
8. Replace the front bezel.
9. Replace the computer cover, reconnect the system to the electrical outlet, and turn on the system.
10. Run the IDE Devices test in the Dell Diagnostics to confirm that the new drive works correctly.

Connecting an External SCSI Tape Drive

This subsection describes how to configure and install an external SCSI tape drive.

SCSI Configuration Information

Although SCSI devices are installed essentially the same way as other devices, their configuration requirements are different. Before you connect an external SCSI tape drive, refer to the guidelines in the following subsections.

SCSI ID Numbers

Each device attached to a SCSI host adapter must have a unique SCSI ID number from 0 to 7.

When SCSI devices are shipped from Dell, the default SCSI ID numbers are assigned as follows:

• The integrated Ultra/Narrow SCSI host adapter is configured through the basic input/output system (BIOS) as SCSI ID 7.
• A SCSI tape drive is configured as SCSI ID 6 (the default ID number for a tape drive).

NOTE: You do not need to assign SCSI ID numbers sequentially, or attach SCSI devices to a SCSI interface cable in order by ID number.

Device Termination

When you attach external SCSI devices, use only external SCSI cables with active termination on the cable, and disable termination on all the external SCSI devices. For information on disabling termination on the device, see the documentation provided with any optional SCSI device you purchase.

Installing the Tape Drive

To connect a stand-alone SCSI tape drive, perform the following steps:

CAUTION: See Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge.

1. Prepare the tape drive for installation.
2. Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal surface on the back of the computer.
3. Unpack the tape drive (and controller card, if applicable), and configure the tape drive for the system according to the documentation that came with the tape drive.
4. If the tape drive was supplied with a controller card, perform the following steps to install the card:
1. Remove the computer cover.
2. Install the controller card in an expansion slot.
3. Replace the computer cover.
5. Connect the tape drive's interface/DC power cable to the external SCSI connector on the back of the system, or the connector on the controller card supplied with the tape drive.
6. Secure the connection by tightening the screws on the connector.
7. Reconnect the computer and peripherals to electrical outlets, and turn them on.
8. Perform a tape backup and verification test with the drive as instructed in the software documentation that came with the drive.

Installing SCSI Hard-Disk Drives

The internal hard-disk drive bays provide space for one or two 1-inch hard-disk drives. These drives connect to a SCSI backplane board. An Ultra2/low voltage differential (LVD) SCSI cable connects the SCSI backplane board to the Ultra2/LVD SCSI host adapter connector on the input/output (I/O) board or to an optional SCSI host adapter card such as the Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller host adapter card.

Before You Begin

SCSI hard-disk drives are supplied by Dell in special drive carriers that fit in the hard-disk drive bays.
 

NOTES: For maximum performance, install Ultra2/LVD drives exclusively. Although you can install a combination of Ultra2/LVD and Ultra hard-disk drives, they will operate at the slower Ultra transfer rate.  Dell recommends that you use only drives that Dell has tested and approved for use with the SCSI backplane board.

Refer to the following guidelines when you configure the SCSI drive:

• Disable termination on the drive. The SCSI backplane board provides termination for the SCSI bus.
• Set the SCSI ID on all drives to 0. All SCSI ID numbers for the drives are set by the SCSI backplane board.
• Configure the drive so that the drive motor waits for a Start Unit command from the SCSI host adapter before spinning.

You may need to use different programs than those provided with the operating system to partition and format SCSI hard-disk drives. See "Installing and Configuring SCSI Drivers," in the User's Guide for information and instructions.

CAUTION: 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 SCSI hard-disk drive, allow enough time for the formatting to be completed. Long format times for these drives are normal. A 9-gigabyte (GB) hard-disk drive, for example, can take up to 2.5 hours to format.

Installing a SCSI Hard-Disk Drive

To install a SCSI hard-disk drive, perform the following steps.  

CAUTION: Hot-pluggable drive installation is not supported for systems without a Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller host adapter card.

1. Power down the hard-disk drive bay. If the system does not have a PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller installed, shut down the system.
2. Remove the front bezel.
3. Open the hard-disk drive carrier handle (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Installing a SCSI Hard-Disk Drive Carrier

4. Insert the carrier into the drive bay (see step 1 in Figure 6).
5. Close the drive carrier handle to lock the drive in place (see step 2 in Figure 6).
6. Replace the front bezel.
7. Lock the keylock.
8. Install any required SCSI device drivers.
   See "Installing and Configuring SCSI Drivers," in the User's Guide for information.
9. If the hard-disk drive is a new drive, run the Symbios SCSI Controllers test in the Dell Diagnostics.

Removing a SCSI Hard-Disk Drive

To remove a SCSI hard-disk drive, perform the following steps.
 

CAUTION: Hot-pluggable drive removal is not supported for systems without a Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller host adapter card.

1. If the system does not have a PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller installed, shut down the system.
2. For systems with PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controllers, power down the hard-disk drive bay and wait until the SCSI hard-disk drive indicator codes on the drive carrier signal that the drive may be removed safely. If the drive has been online, the drive status indicators will flash sequentially as the drive is powered down. When all indicators are turned off, the drive is ready for removal.
3. Remove the front bezel.
4. Open the drive carrier handle to release the carrier.
5. Slide the carrier toward you until it is free of the drive bay.
6. Replace the front bezel.

Installing a Dell Host Adapter Card

Follow these general guidelines when installing a Dell host adapter card. For specific instructions, refer to the documentation supplied with the host adapter card.
 

WARNING: Before installing the host adapter card, you must turn off the computer and disconnect it from the electrical outlet. For more information, refer to Safety First—For You and Your Computer.

 

CAUTION: See Protecting Against Electrostatic Discharge.

1. Unpack the host adapter card, and prepare it for installation.
   Refer to the documentation accompanying the host adapter card.
2. Remove the computer cover.
3. Remove the input/output (I/O) riser board cover from the chassis (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Removing the I/O Riser Board Cover

4. Detach the Ultra2/LVD SCSI interface cable from the primary SCSI host-adapter connector on the I/O board (see Figure 1 in "Installing System Options" for the location of the SCSI host adapter connector).
5. Install the host adapter card .
   If you are installing a Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 2/SC, install the card in Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) expansion slot 1.
6. Connect the end of the Ultra2/LVD SCSI interface cable to the connector on the host adapter card.
   To identify the correct connector, refer to documentation for the host adapter card.
7. Attach the external SCSI devices to the SCSI host adapter card's external connector on the computer's back panel.
   If you are attaching multiple external SCSI devices, daisy-chain the devices to each other by using the cables shipped with each device.
8. Replace the I/O riser board cover (see Figure 7).
9. Replace the computer cover, and reconnect the computer and peripherals to electrical outlets.
10. Connect the external device(s) to electrical outlet(s).
    For each external device, plug the socket end of the power cable into the power receptacle on the back of the device. Plug the other end of the power cable into an electrical outlet.
11. Install any required SCSI device drivers.
    See "Installing and Configuring SCSI Drivers," in the User's Guide for information and instructions.
12. Test the SCSI devices.

Test a SCSI hard-disk drive by running the Symbios SCSI Controllers test in the Dell Diagnostics. To test a SCSI tape drive, also refer to the documentation for the tape drive software to perform a tape drive backup and verification test.

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Configuring the Boot Device

If you plan to boot the system from a hard-disk drive, the drive must be attached to the primary (or boot) controller or SCSI host adapter card. The device that the system boots from is determined by the boot order specified in the system setup program.

The system setup program provides options that the system uses to scan for installed boot devices. Refer to the User's Guide for information about the system setup program.

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