What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

My employer has just freed up two 4500's and two 4400's that were not being used. I am new to this forum but I have been catching up on the posts and FAQ's. The 4500's are running 3.2.025, but I can't tell if I need to upgrade the Guardian OS to some later version if I want to replace the 250GB drives with 500 or 750GB drives. I don't know what the 4400's are running right now. So:
1 - do I need to upgrade the Guardian OS if I want larger drives?
2 - Adaptec's site tells me my serial doesn't entitle me, so what do they charge? If they charge too much and question 1's answer is "yes", then these units will likely go back to the storeroom.
3 - has anyone ever put another OS on these? Like Win2k, Win2k3, Netware, BEOS (just joking), etc? Flame away, I'm just curious.

Thanks all
Brian

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

The older OS version should support the larger drives, but have not tested it. (Mine was v4 when I got it.) The latest v4.4.049 SP2, gives you full support for all current OS being used including Vista and new DST times.

Adaptec will sell you the GuardianOS for around $650, the last time I checked.

Users have loaded other OS's on the 4500 but not the 4400. Do a search for the 4500 should bring them up, I think they were trying out freeNAS or loaded FreeBSD. Had to change some config files to get it to boot. Just remember to save a HD so you can back up to the GuardianOS. You must have a working GuardianOS unit to transfer the OS to new/other drives.

You need to turn off the watchdog in the bios. Requires a PW to access the 4400 bios, that we do not have.

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

If you dont need/want them

They will sell on eBay pretty well...

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

Bummer. The network I am considering using these in is almost exclusively Win2k3 and soon to be Win2k8, with XP and Vista (don't get me started on Vista) clients. I guess we can toss them back into storage or sell them; looks like the 4500's can often sell for about $1,000 and the 4400's can often sell for about $700, which isn't too shabby. Before that, though, I am curious about putting another OS on them; I'll just drag out some old 40 or 80 gig drives and store the original 250's.

Just so I understand, the 4400 has a BIOS password that is still a secret after all of these years? That's amazing. Or is it an individualized password that is tied to the serial number somehow? If so, it still surprises me that the info's not out there somewhere. I wonder in an purely academic fashion if it could be brute-forced. Not that I would advocate or support such a thing, certain draconian laws being what they are.

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

The Guardian OS units did not start showing up here on a regular basis till about a year ago. I only know of one user (Phoenix32) that has one, and is working on that. But since the 4400 requires you to install a video card to see whats going on it not as easy as the 4500. BIOS access is needed to turn the watchdog off.

Or you can buy a Dell 715N which is running on Win2k3 cheaper than the Snap 4400. I have one here that belongs to Hallis, we tried to load FreeNAS on it. But did not know what network chips set was required. I have not had the time to mess with it since then.

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

Um, yes and no. If they have 1TB+ and Guardian OS 4.4.049 SP2, sure. But then you wouldn't be selling them would you? Without, don't expect to get much more than a little less than half of that. Yup, I said less than half. Why? Uh because of what you just asked here. The OS is needed and the OS is expensive. With it, the unit is expensive. Without it, it's not so expensive.

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=14432

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

Granted; you make some good points. However, the selling points of the 4500's, if I chose to try and sell them, would be:
1 - they are pristine, hardware-wise, and complete.
2 - the 4500's have 4x250GB drives, or 1TB total
3 - the more knowledgeable buyers out there who have a 4500 would also have the ability to upgrade the OS, if I understand correctly, by swapping drives one at a time, right? That makes the low version number on the 4500's a moot issue for them. Correct me on this one if I'm wrong.

As long as I describe them truthfully, I suspect I could still get a decent sum from them with a clean conscience. If not, I've only lost the Ebay listing fee -- no big loss for learning the state of the market.

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

Therein lay the problem. The more they know, the more they know that OS is going to cost them $600 if they don't already have it (and they probably don't).

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

I agree in principle with what you're saying, but if, for example, you were to buy them, I see from your sig that you have several 4500's. You could upgrade the OS on the new one at no cost by swapping the drives one at a time, right? That would make the OS version a non-issue from where I'm standing. Or do I understand this incorrectly?

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

If you read the license agreement, It is only Legal to to run it on 1 machine. So 4 4500 = 4 license

Re: What does Guardian OS cost from Adaptec?
 

That's what I was after. Now the other replies make sense.