Owners Manual

Hard Drives—Hot-Swappable

Your system supports one of the following configurations:

• Up to eight 3.5 inch (SAS, SATA, or SSD) hot-swappable hard drives

• Up to eight 2.5 inch (SAS, SATA, or SSD) hot-swappable hard drives installed in 3.5 inch hard-drive adapters, which

are then installed in the 3.5 inch hard-drive carriers

• Up to sixteen 2.5 inch (SAS, SATA, or SSD) hot-swappable hard drives

CAUTION: Before attempting to remove or install a hot-swappable hard drive while the system is running, see the

documentation for the storage controller card to ensure that the host adapter is configured correctly to support

hot-swap hard drive removal and insertion.

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

drive failure. Be aware that high-capacity hard drives can take a number of hours to format.

NOTE: All hot-swappable hard drives connect to the system board through the hard-drive backplane. Hard drives

are supplied in hot-swappable hard-drive carriers that fit in the hard-drive slots.

NOTE: Use only hot-swappable hard drives that have been tested and approved for use with the hard-drive

backplane.

Removing a Hot-Swap Hard Drive

CAUTION: To prevent data loss, ensure that your operating system supports hot-swap drive installation. See the

documentation supplied with your operating system.

1. In the server management software, use the Prepare to Remove task to spin down a physical disk so that it can be

safely removed from the system. Wait until the indicators on the hard-drive carrier signal that the hard drive can be

removed safely. For more information, see the documentation for the server management software at Dell.com/

support.

If the hard drive is online, the green activity/fault indicator flashes as the drive is turned off. When the hard-drive

indicators are off, the hard drive is ready for removal.

2. Press the release button to open the hard-drive carrier release handle.

3. Slide the hard-drive carrier out until it is free of the hard-drive slot.

CAUTION: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty hard-drive slots must have hard-drive blanks

installed.

4. Insert a hard-drive blank in the empty hard-drive slot.