sandyfromleeming

Q: how to activate drive bays on Apple Xserver

Does anyone know how to activate drive bays on Apple Xserver - system is Leopard.

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Aug 9, 2016 11:41 PM

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Q: how to activate drive bays on Apple Xserver

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  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Aug 10, 2016 2:38 AM in response to sandyfromleeming
    Level 6 (9,215 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Aug 10, 2016 2:38 AM in response to sandyfromleeming

    If an XServe was originally purchased with a single hard disk it would come (obviously) with a single hard disk fitted in a special drive caddy aka. Apple Drive Module. The other two or three drive bays depending on how old the XServe was would be fitted with dummy caddies aka. 'blanks' which are incapable of holding hard disks.

     

    This is a very common practice by server manufacturers - not just Apple but also HP, Dell, etc. and is designed to force you to buy hard drives from the server maker at a significant price premium. They of course use the excuse that this ensures you get a certified compatible drive.

     

    So if you need an additional real caddy then these were only made by Apple and with the XServe being long discontinued you are going to find it harder to obtain any.

     

    I can confirm from past experience that if you have a drive caddy it will work with third-party standard SATA drives.

     

    Other than looking on eBay the following appears to be an empty Apple Drive Module aka. caddy suitable for use in an Intel version of the XServe. If you search via Google you may find other sources as well.

     

    See - http://www.disctech.com/Apple-Xserve-620-2976-A-3-5-SATA-Hard-Drive-Caddy