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Hard disk drive installation considerations

Hard disk drives must be installed in a specific order based on the hard disk drive configuration that you implement on your server.

The following notes describe the type of hard disk drives that the server supports and other information that you must consider when installing a hard disk drive:

  • For a complete list of hard disk drives supported for the server, see Lenovo ServerProven website.
  • The server supports up to 24 2.5-inch hard disk drives.
  • The electromagnetic interference (EMI) integrity and cooling of the server are protected by having all bays and PCI Express slots covered or occupied. When you install a drive or a PCI Express adapter, save the EMC shield and filler panel from the bay or PCI Express adapter slot cover in the event that you later remove the device.
  • Locate the documentation that comes with the hard disk drive and follow those instructions in addition to the instructions in this chapter.
  • Do not mix standard 512-byte and advanced 4-KB format drives in the same RAID array because it may lead to potential performance issues.
  • Check the instructions that come with the drive to determine whether you have to set any switches or jumpers on the drive. If you are installing a SAS or SATA hard disk drive, be sure to set the SAS or SATA ID for that device.