Installing Drives

Dell™ PowerEdge™ 700 Systems Installation and Troubleshooting Guide

Connecting Drives

Front-Panel Drive Inserts

Diskette Drive

5.25-Inch Drives

Hard Drives

Cabled SATA and SCSI Hard Drives

Hot-Plug SCSI Hard Drives

Installing a RAID Controller Card

Your system supports the following drives:

Up to two externally accessible 5.25-inch drives (typically CD and tape backup drives). A CD drive is standard in the first external drive bay, and a tape backup device can be installed in the second external drive bay.
An externally accessible 3.5-inch diskette drive.
Up to four 1-inch SATA or SCSI hard drives.

Connecting Drives

Interface Cables

Most interface connectors are keyed for correct insertion. Keying ensures that the pin-1 wire in the cable connects to pin 1 in the connectors on both ends. When you disconnect an interface cable, take care to grasp the cable connector, rather than the cable itself, to avoid stress on the cable.

Drive Cable Configurations

Your system can accommodate many different drive configurations, each with specific cable requirements. Table 7-1 shows the cable requirements for common drive configurations.

NOTE: Installing SATA and SCSI hard drives in the same system is not supported.

Table 7-1. Drive Cable Configuration

Drives	Required Cable	Cable Connections
IDE CD, DVD, and CD-RW/DVD drives, and IDE and SCSI tape drives (See Figure 7-4.)	40-pin IDE 2-drop cable or SCSI 1-drop cable (terminated)	IDE drive and primary IDE connector on system board or the SCSI tape device and the SCSI controller card
Up to two cabled SATA hard drives (See Figure 7-7.)	7-pin SATA hard-drive cable (one cable per drive)	SATA hard drives and SATA port connectors on the system board
Three or four cabled SATA hard drives (See Figure 7-8.)	One SATA hard-drive cable assembly for up to four drives	SATA hard drives and SATA RAID controller card (when available)
Up to four hot-plug SCSI hard drives (See Figure 7-10.)	38-cm (15-inch) 68-pin SCSI 1-drop cable (unterminated)	SCSI backplane and the SCSI or RAID controller card
Up to four cabled (non-hot-plug) SCSI hard-drives (See Figure 7-9.)	94-cm (37-inch) SCSI 4-drop cable (terminated)	SCSI hard drives and SCSI RAID controller or SCSI controller card

DC Power Cables

Each drive must connect to a DC power cable from the system power supply. These power cables are used for the 3.5-inch diskette drive, 5.25-inch devices, and hard drives.

NOTICE: To avoid electrical damage to internal system components, install a cover connector on any unused connectors on hard-drive power cables.

Front-Panel Drive Inserts

To help keep dust and dirt out of the system, a plastic insert in the bezel covers each empty external drive bay. Additionally, each empty external drive bay is covered by a metal insert in the chassis to maintain Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification of the system.

Before you install a 5.25-inch drive in an empty external drive bay, you must first remove both front-panel drive inserts. If you remove a 5.25-inch drive permanently, you must install both inserts.

Removing the Front-Panel Drive Inserts

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Remove the bezel drive insert (see Figure 7-1):
1. From inside the bezel, press the center of the insert outward with your thumbs to loosen the tabs on the sides of the insert.
1. Pull the insert out of the bezel.
Remove the chassis drive insert (see Figure 7-1):
1. Press both sides of the insert to loosen the tabs on the insert.
1. Pull the insert out of the chassis.

Figure 7-1. Removing the Front-Panel Drive Inserts

Installing the Front-Panel Drive Inserts

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

NOTICE: You must install both inserts in an empty 5.25-inch drive bay to maintain Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification of the system. The inserts also help keep dust and dirt out of the system.

Install the chassis drive insert by sliding the insert into the chassis until tabs on the side of the insert snap into place. See Figure 7-1.
Install the bezel drive insert by sliding the insert into the bezel until the tabs on the side of the insert snap into place. See Figure 7-1.
Install the bezel. See "Installing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.

Diskette Drive

Removing a Diskette Drive

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Lay the system on its right side.
Remove the cover. See "Removing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Disconnect the power cable and the interface cable from the diskette drive. See Figure 7-2.
Remove the two screws that secure the diskette drive in the externally accessible drive bay. See Figure 7-2.
Slide the diskette drive forward out of the drive bay.

Installing a Diskette Drive

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

Unpack the drive and prepare the drive for installation.

For instructions, see the documentation that accompanied the drive.

Slide the diskette drive into the externally accessible drive bay.
Install the two screws that secure the diskette drive in the drive bay. See Figure 7-2.
Connect the power cable and the interface cable to the diskette drive. See Figure 7-2.
Install the cover. See "Replacing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Stand the system upright.
Install the bezel. See "Installing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.

Figure 7-2. Removing a Diskette Drive

5.25-Inch Drives

A CD drive is standard in the first external drive bay. An additional IDE or SCSI tape backup device can be installed in the second external drive bay. These drives connect either to the system board or to an optional controller card.

NOTE: Installing an additional CD, DVD, or CD-RW/DVD drive in the second external drive bay is not supported.

Installing a 5.25-Inch Drive

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

Unpack the drive (and controller card, if applicable), and prepare the drive for installation.

For instructions, see the documentation that accompanied the drive.

NOTE: If you are installing a SCSI tape drive, you must install an Ultra 3 SCSI controller card. A RAID controller card does not support a SCSI tape drive.

Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Lay the system on its right side.
Remove the cover. See "Removing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Remove the cooling shroud. See "Removing the Cooling Shroud" in "Installing System Options."
Remove the front-panel inserts for the empty external drive bay. See "Removing the Front- Panel Drive Inserts."
Slide the drive into the external drive bay.
Install the screws that secure the drive in the drive bay. See Figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3. Installing a 5.25-Inch Drive

If a controller card was supplied with the drive, install the controller card in expansion slot 3, 4, or 5. See "Installing an Expansion Card" in "Installing System Options."
Connect a power cable to the drive. See Figure 7-3.
Connect the interface cable to the drive and to the appropriate connector on the system board or controller card (if applicable).

NOTE: See the documentation that is included with the controller card for more information.

If you are installing an IDE device (such as a CD or DVD drive), connect the interface cable to the IDE device and the PRIMARY_IDE connector on the system board. See Figure 7-4.

If you are installing a SCSI device in the second drive bay (such as a tape backup device), connect the interface cable to the device and the SCSI controller card. See Figure 7-4.

See Figure A-3 to locate the system board connectors.

NOTE: A SCSI device attached to a SCSI controller card and an IDE device attached to the system board can be installed together as shown in Figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4. Connecting a Tape Drive to a SCSI Controller Card

Ensure that all cables are firmly connected and arranged so that they will not catch on the computer covers or block airflow inside the system.
Install the cooling shroud. See "Installing the Cooling Shroud" in "Installing System Options."
Install the cover. See "Replacing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Stand the system upright.
Install the bezel. See "Installing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
Test the drive.

If you installed an IDE device, run the IDE devices tests in the system diagnostics to determine whether the device operates properly. See "Running the System Diagnostics."

If you installed a SCSI device, run the SCSI controllers test in the system diagnostics. See "Running System Diagnostics."

If you installed a tape drive, see the tape drive software documentation to perform a backup and verification test.

Hard Drives

Your system can contain up to four 1-inch SATA or SCSI hard drives in a removable drive bay. These drives connect either to the system board or to an optional controller card.

General Installation Guidelines

Use the following guidelines when installing hard drives:

You should only use drives that have been tested and approved by the system manufacturer.
Do not install SATA and SCSI hard drives together in the same system.
Do not install cabled and hot-plug SCSI hard drives together in the same system.
You may need to use different programs than those provided with the operating system to partition and format a hard drive. See the hard drive's documentation for information on setting up the drive.
When you format a high-capacity hard drive, allow enough time for the formatting to be completed. Long format times for these drives are normal. For example, a large drive can take over an hour to format.
Do not turn off or reboot your system while the drive is being formatted. Doing so can cause a drive failure.

NOTE: The hard-drive activity indicator operates only when SATA hard drives are connected directly to the SATA port connectors on the system board. The indicator does not operate with SCSI drives or drives that are attached to a controller card. To identify the indicator, see Figure 2-1.

Configuring the Boot Drive

The drive or device from which the system boots is determined by the boot order specified in the System Setup program (see "Using the System Setup Program" in your User's Guide). To boot the system from a hard drive or drive array, the drive(s) must be connected to the appropriate controller:

To boot from a single SATA hard drive, the master drive (drive 0) must be connected to the SATA_PORT0 connector on the system board. To identify system board connectors, see Figure A-3.
To boot from a single SCSI hard drive, the drive must be connected to the SCSI or RAID controller card. See the documentation that accompanied the controller card.
To boot from a SATA RAID (when available) or SCSI RAID array, the drive must be connected to the RAID controller card. See the documentation that accompanied the controller card.

Cabled SATA and SCSI Hard Drives

Removing a Hard Drive

CAUTION: See your System Information Guide for complete information about safety precautions working inside the computer and protecting against electrostatic discharge.

Turn off the system, including any attached peripherals, and disconnect the system from the electrical outlet.
Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Lay the system on its right side.
Remove the cover. See "Removing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Remove the cooling shroud. See "Removing the Cooling Shroud" in "Installing System Options."
Disconnect the interface and power cables to the hard drives in the drive bay.
Remove the hard-drive bay. See Figure 7-5 and Figure 7-6.
1. Loosen the four screws that secure the drive bay to the system.
1. Slide the hard-drive bay out of the system.
Remove the drive from the drive bay. See Figure 7-5 and Figure 7-6.
1. Remove the screws that secure the drive in the hard-drive bay.
1. Slide the drive out of the drive bay.

Figure 7-5. Removing a SATA Hard Drive

Figure 7-6. Removing a Cabled SCSI Hard Drive

Installing a Hard Drive

Unpack the drive (and controller card, if applicable), and prepare the drive for installation.

For instructions, see the documentation that accompanied the drive.

Install the hard drive in the hard-drive bay:
1. Slide the drive into the drive bay with the back of the drive toward the back of the drive bay.
1. Install the screws that secure the drive in the drive bay.
Install the hard-drive bay (see Figure 7-5 and Figure 7-6):
1. Slide the drive bay into the system until the drive bay contacts the system.
1. Install the four screws that secure the drive bay in the system.

NOTICE: To prevent damage to internal system components, ensure that a connector cap is installed on each available power connector that is not connected to a hard drive.

Connect a power cable to each hard drive. See Figure 7-5 and Figure 7-6.
Connect the hard-drive interface cables to each hard drive. To identify the system board connectors, see Figure A-3.

If you are installing up to two SATA drives, connect the interface cables from SATA_PORT0 and SATA_PORT1 on the system board to drive 0 and drive 1, respectively. See Figure 7-7.

Figure 7-7. Connecting Two SATA Hard Drives to the Integrated Drive Controller

NOTE: The integrated drive controller on the system board can support only two SATA hard drives. If you are installing three or four SATA hard drives, you must connect the drives to a SATA RAID controller card in a RAID or non-RAID configuration.

If you are installing up to four SATA hard drives:

Install a SATA RAID controller card in a 64-bit/66-MHz expansion slot. See Figure A-3 to identify the expansion slots.

Connect the SATA cable assembly to port 0 through port 3 on the SATA RAID controller card and to drive 0 through drive 3, respectively. See Figure 7-8.

Figure 7-8. Connecting Four Drives to a SATA RAID Controller Card

If you are installing a cabled SCSI drive, connect the SCSI interface cable to the hard drives and to the SCSI controller card. See Figure 7-9.

Figure 7-9. Cabling Four SCSI Hard Drives to the SCSI Controller Card

Ensure that all cables are firmly connected and arranged so that they will not catch on the computer covers or block airflow inside the system.
Install the cooling shroud. See "Installing the Cooling Shroud" in "Installing System Options."
Install the cover. See "Replacing the Cover" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Stand the system upright.
Install the bezel. See "Installing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Reconnect the system to its electrical outlet and turn the system on, including any attached peripherals.
Partition and logically format the hard drive. See the operating system documentation for more information.
Install any required device drivers.
Run the hard drive tests in the system diagnostics to determine whether the drive operates properly. See "Running System Diagnostics."

If the drive is connected to a SATA RAID controller card, see the RAID controller card documentation for information on testing the controller.

If the drive is connected to a SCSI controller card, run the SCSI controller tests and the hard drive tests in the system diagnostics. See "Running System Diagnostics."

If the hard drive fails the hard drive tests or does not operate properly, see "Getting Help."

Hot-Plug SCSI Hard Drives

The drive bays in a system with an optional SCSI backplane board provide space for up to four 1-inch hot-plug hard drives. The hard drives plug into the SCSI backplane board, which is connected to a SCSI RAID controller card. See Figure 7-10.

Figure 7-10. Hot-Plug SCSI Hard Drives Connected to a SCSI RAID Controller Card

Removing a Hard Drive

NOTICE: Not all operating system support hot-plug drive installation. See the operating system documentation.

Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Take the hard drive offline and wait until the hard-drive indicator codes on the drive carrier signal that the drive can be removed safely. See Table 2-4 for a list of hard-drive indicator codes.

If the drive has been online, the drive status indicator will blink green 2 times per second as the drive is powered down. When all indicators are off, the drive is ready for removal.

See your operating system documentation for more information on taking the hard drive offline.

Open the hard-drive carrier handle to release the drive. See Figure 7-11.
Slide the hard drive out until it is free of the drive bay.

Figure 7-11. Removing a Hot-Plug SCSI Drive

Installing a Hard Drive

Unpack the drive (and controller card, if applicable), and prepare the drive for installation.

For instructions, see the documentation that accompanied the drive.

Remove the bezel. See "Removing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Open the hard-drive carrier handle. See Figure 7-11.

NOTICE: Do not insert a hard-drive carrier and attempt to lock its handle next to a partially installed carrier. Doing so can damage the partially installed carrier's shield spring and make it unusable. Ensure that the adjacent drive carrier is fully installed.

Insert the hard-drive carrier into the drive bay. See Figure 7-11.
Close the hard-drive carrier handle to lock it in place.
Install the bezel. See "Installing the Bezel" in "Troubleshooting Your System."
Install any required SCSI device drivers.
Run the SCSI controllers tests and the hard drive tests in the system diagnostics. See "Running System Diagnostics."

If the hard drive fails the hard drive tests or does not operate properly, see "Getting Help."

Installing a RAID Controller Card

See "Installing an Expansion Card" in "Installing System Components" for instructions about installing the card.

NOTE: Install a RAID controller card in expansion slot 3, 4, or 5. If you install both a RAID controller card and an Ultra 3 SCSI controller card, install the RAID controller card in expansion slot 5. See Figure A-3 to identify the expansion slots.

Back to Contents Page