Alternative SATA Conversion

[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...

[limesmj]

1. Remove caddy from the Snap Server 4500 (FYI: I am using GuardianOS 4.2.054 SP3 - BIOS version 3B02).
2. Undo the four rubber mounted screws that attaches the old HDD onto the caddy.
3. Remove HDD from the caddy board (leave power and IDE cable attached to caddy) and slide off rubber mounted screws.
4. Mount the new 2.5" SATA drive to the StarTech bracket (note the kit comes with a power cable that is not needed) with the SATA connectors being indented approximately 3/4" from one end.
5. Take a bridge board and connect it to the tray circuit board using the existing IDE cable and power Molex... there is no need to attach or secure the bridge board to the caddy as it will not move around once everything is put into place.
6. Take a extension cable and connect the HDD to the SATA bridge board.
7. Get two screws ready with two nylon spacers.
8. Taking care to route the cable under the tray, screw the HDD mounted tray on both the left and right side rear (holes closest to the hotswap board) with the spaced screws.
9. FYI: The right side of the tray should comfortably rest on the extension cable underneath and not be pinching it.
10. Plug in your new SATA converted caddy into the Snap Server and verify that both the green and red lights are on the SATA bridgeboard to confirm that the HDD is functional.
11. Repeat for the other drives.

[limesmj]

Hopefully that all makes sense but I am attaching photos of the build so you can see some of the details during the conversion as well as the final product (including a screenshot from my converted 1.4TB SATA Snap 4500).

So far it's been running fine for the last 3 days without issues but one thing to note. One of the four Seagate drives I purchased caused my Snap server to lockup during the RAID resync around 30%. After troubleshooting a bit, I found that the drive itself was defective and had sector read/write problems (and lots of clicking noises hehe). After replacing the drive, everything resync'd just fine... I would've noticed the problem sooner but the damn fans on this thing are so loud, I couldn't hear the head clicking.

Thanks for reading and hopefully this helps somebody out.

[Phoenix32]

Looks good. I am happy to hear I inspired someone to further modifications. Good job my friend.

I considered a mod like this at one point and "for me" decided that it would not gain for me the things I need (larger and cheaper drives). However, it was still a good idea and i am glad someone pursued it.

The one place I would caution other modders on with this type mod is to really work the SATA adapters. I large majority of them are just not up to 24/7 and/or heavy work loads (transfering huge amounts of data).


Good Job!