[netwraith]

Some more info on these.

Electrically these work fine...

Guardian Snap Servers (At least all the EIDE ones that I have come across) all use Primary IDE channels only. No secondary drives on the channel. Since there is only one drive per channel, timing does not seem to be an issue.

The issue arrives when you attempt to put these on the sled with the drives. (I did my electronics testing with an open unit and no sleds!).

I got a few of the LK-13415 adapters from NSIoutlet.com and while they work, they won't fit in the clearance space between the drive and the hot swap board without some surgery. (At least with the 4400 and 4200/4500 drive carriers).

It requires removing the jumper block from the lower long edge of the adapter board and getting new 470uF/25VDC capacitors (with longer leads) and laying them down parallel to the adapter board. I have modified one with a couple of right angle soldered stubs and it works fine, but, I think longer leads with a right angle bend would be more reliable from an electrical noise standpoint. (and that's the point of having a capacitor there anyway)... This will require a soldering iron (low power) and a few skills. If you don't have the skills, you might know someone who does. (A couple of six packs could convince the person to help... right?). A little epoxy, glueing the capacitors to the board will round out the fix.

BTW, you can find the capacitors online; ...

The IDE cable connector is a bit tight too, but, the cable itself can be reshaped with a little folding (finger pressure only) and it will fit OK. Power connector does not interfere since it's outboard of and above the level of the HotSwap board.

So the answer to the question is a qualified :: YES (I have not done extensive testing yet, and won't do it until I have the boards mounted solidly. I suspect that the SMARTCTL and HDPARM commands will work a bit differently with the SATA drives on the PATA controllers. (There seems to be differences between the drive types, since most newer controllers treat the SATA drives like SCSI drives)).

I will make a final post to this when I have all the dimensional issues conquered and my 4500 is running it's new drives on a permanent style basis. (as permanent as things get around here is a few months before I outgrow storage and need to expand).

This will likely be my last efforts at using Guardian units. Adaptec getting $xxx.xx a year for support (and the only support I need or want is :: OS UPDATES), and them insisting on getting the support fee in order to get updates (a copy of Linux (A free OS... they did not pay anything for it ... nor have I noticed any change in the proprietary modules loaded into the kernel from version to version. (Which is thier excuse to charge for the updates))) .... sticks in my craw... (I don't really care about the bundled addons and I have not noticed any change in functionality, so, it's really hard to call them upgrades) And, since OpenFiler is getting to be very robust and 1U hot swap SATA chassis are getting cheap (I got 2 1U/ P4 2ghz's/512mb RAM and 4 250GB hot swap SATA drives for $100/each the other day)... I will be running OpenFiler from now on..

(**UPDATE** After a couple of foiled attempts at capacitor procurement, I think I am going to be forced to use the right angle soldered extension and forgo the new capacitors... My suppliers has supply problems... Not a good sign for us do-it-yourself electronics experimenters .. Just a little extra epoxy around the leads to keep them stable (or a drop of RTV silicone ***)

.. and my OpenFiler units are ready and are faster than my GuardOS SnapServers ... Perhaps I will end up selling my Guardian units..