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Remove the 4 x 3.5" drive backplane and drive cage

Follow instructions in this section to remove the rear 3.5-inch 4-bay drive backplane and drive cage.

About this task

Attention

  • Read Installation Guidelines and Safety inspection checklist to ensure that you work safely.

  • Power off the server and peripheral devices and disconnect the power cords and all external cables. See Power off the server.

  • Prevent exposure to static electricity, which might lead to system halt and loss of data, by keeping static-sensitive components in their static-protective packages until installation, and handling these devices with an electrostatic-discharge wrist strap or other grounding system.

  • Before you remove or make changes to drives, drive controllers (including controllers that are integrated on the system board assembly), drive backplanes or drive cables, back up all important data that is stored on drives.

  • Before you remove any component of a RAID array (drive, RAID card, etc.), back up all RAID configuration information.

  • If one or more NVMe solid-state drives are to be removed, it is recommended to disable them beforehand via the operating system.

Procedure

  1. Make preparation for the task.
    1. If the server is installed in a rack, slide the server out on its rack slide rails to gain access to the top cover, or remove the server from the rack. See Remove the server from rack.
    2. Remove the top cover. See Remove the top cover.
    3. Disconnect cables from the rear drive backplane.
    4. Remove all the installed drives and fillers (if any) from the drive bays. See Remove a hot-swap drive.
  2. Remove the rear drive cage.
    Figure 1. Removing the 4 x 3.5-inch rear drive cage
    Removing the 4 x 3.5-inch rear drive cage

    1. Twist and pull out the blue plungers.
    2. Slide the drive cage towards the rear of the chassis to release it, and lift the drive cage out of the chassis.
  3. Remove the rear drive backplane.
    Figure 2. Removing the 4 x 3.5-inch rear drive backplane
    Removing the 4 x 3.5-inch rear drive backplane
    1. Open the release latches in the direction as shown.
    2. Rotate the backplane from the top to disengage it from the pins on the drive cage.
    3. Carefully lift the backplane out of the drive cage.

After you finish

If you are instructed to return the component or optional device, follow all packaging instructions, and use any packaging materials for shipping that are supplied to you.

Demo video

Watch the procedure on YouTube