Installing SCSI Hard-Disk Drives

Dell™ PowerEdge™ 2550 Systems User's Guide

Preparing SCSI Hard-Disk Drives for Installation

This chapter describes how to install and configure small computer system interface (SCSI) hard-disk drives in the system's internal hard-disk drive bays.

The hard-disk drive bays provide space for up to four 1-inch hard-disk drives. (See "Installing a Drive in the Peripheral Bay" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for information on installing SCSI CD-ROM drives and SCSI tape drives in the externally accessible hard-disk drive bays.)

Figure 5-1 illustrates the hard-disk drive bays, the hot-plug SCSI backplane board, and the SCSI interface cables.

Figure 5-1. Hard-Disk Drive Hardware

Preparing SCSI Hard-Disk Drives for Installation

NOTE: Dell recommends that you use only drives that Dell has tested and approved for use with the SCSI backplane board.

SCSI Hard-Disk Drive Configuration

The SCSI drives must be configured as follows:

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

Partitioning and Formatting SCSI Hard-Disk Drives

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 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for information and instructions.

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

When you format a high-capacity SCSI hard-disk drive, be sure to allow enough time for the formatting to complete. Long formatting 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 SCSI Hard-Disk Drives

SCSI hard-disk drives are supplied by Dell in special drive carriers that fit in the hard-disk drive bays. To install a SCSI hard-disk drive, perform the following steps.

NOTICE: Hot-plug drive installation is not supported for systems without an integrated redundant array of independent disks (RAID) controller or a Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 3/Di host adapter card.

If the system does not have a RAID controller installed, shut down the system.
If the optional bezel is installed, remove it.
For systems with RAID controllers, power down the hard-disk drive bay. If a hard-disk drive is currently installed in the bay, wait until all three SCSI hard-disk drive indicators on the hard-disk drive carrier handle are turned off before proceeding.
Open the drive carrier handle and slide the carrier toward you until it is free of the drive bay (see Figure 5-2).

Figure 5-2. Installing a SCSI Hard-Disk Drive Carrier

Open the handle on the new hard-disk drive carrier.
Align the edge of the carrier with the notch in the system chassis and insert the carrier into the drive bay.
Close the drive carrier handle to lock the new drive carrier in place.
If you removed the bezel in step 2, reinstall it now.
Install any required SCSI device drivers. See "Installing and Configuring SCSI Drivers" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.
If the hard-disk drive is a new drive, run the Dell Diagnostics to test the new drive.

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. You can select the primary controller by using the System Setup program.

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