Remove the hard-drive backplane

Use this information to remove the hard-drive backplane.

Before removing the hard-drive backplane:

1. Power off the server. See Power off the server.

2. Disconnect power cords from both power supplies, which are located in the rear of the server.

3. Disengage the hard drives from the hard drive bays. You do not need to actually remove the hard drives; but you do need to disengage them from the hard drive backplane.

4. Loosen the two captive screws located on the rear of the server that secure the drive cage to the server chassis.

5. Record the location of the cables in the front of the PCIe adapters that are installed in the I/O expansion cage at the front of the server, and disconnect the cables.

6. Disconnect the management port cable from the management port in the I/O expansion cage, if necessary.

7. Loosen the two captive screws located on the front of the server. If necessary, use a P2 screwdriver to loosen the screws.

8. Pull the server forward until the slide rails click into place.

9. Remove the top cover. See Remove the top cover.

To remove the hard-drive backplane, complete the following steps:

Figure 1. Removing the hard drive backplane

1. Make sure that the two captive screws located on the rear of the server are loosened.
2. Make sure that all hard drives are disengaged.
3. Disconnect the three cables from the drive backplane (two data cables and one power cable).
4. Grasp the blue tabs on the backplane and lift the backplane straight up from the drive cage.

Demo video

Watch the procedure on YouTube