[limesmj]

Just wanted to preface this post that it was inspired by Phoenix32 and his custom SATA solution. I've lurked around long enough on the forum so I figured I would give my 2 cents on what I did to convert my Snap 4500 to use SATA drives.

Two things I should mention before I start...

First, as Phoenix32 outlines with all of his posts regarding getting a working GOS installed on a bare Snap server, you must have a working image or a working HDD from another GOS-based Snap server before proceeding. I happen to have several other 4500s so I just did the drive swap technique to get my new drives up and running.

Second, there is a caveat to this particular mod that I am pretty sure is due to the SATA/IDE bridgeboard I am using where the amber activity lights do not work. Only the green HDD power LEDs function but it doesn't bother me since I have email monitoring setup to inform me of RAID failures.

Ok. So, as I mentioned earlier, my solution was inspired by Phoenix32's original (and awesome) custom bridgeboards. I decided to try out another method that used a spare 2.5" HDD that I had lying around instead. It offered me more space to mod around the tray with the added benefits of less heat and power consumption.

Here are the exact parts that I used (sorry for formatting):

(4) StartTech 2.5" to 2.5" HDD mounting brackets [BRACKET25SAT]
(4) Seagate Constellation 7200RPM 500GB SATA [ST9500530NS]
(4) KingWin SATA to IDE bridgeboard [ADP-06]
(4) SATA MtoF 22pin extension cable 8" [B00366PSC0]
(8) Zinc M3-0.5 10mm screws [MPPZ-30510-C]
(8) Metric black nylon spacer 10mm x 5.3mm x 5mm [RSN-M047-C]

Build procedures for one drive in next post...