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Remove a hard disk drive

Open the latch handle and pull the drive to remove it from the drive bay. Hard disk drives are hot-swap devices that can be removed while the server is powered on.

Before you remove a hard disk drive:

  1. Make sure you save the data on your drive, especially if it is part of a RAID array, before you remove it from the server.

    • Before you make changes to disk drives, disk drive controllers, disk drive backplanes, or disk drive cables, back up all important data that is stored on hard disks.

    • Before you remove any component of a RAID array, back up all RAID configuration information.

  2. If one or more NVMe solid-state drives are to be removed, make sure that the drive is shut down via the operating system (see the documentation for your operating system for information and instructions). The drive activity (green) LED is on solid for an NVMe drive that is shut down. See the labels above the drive bays to determine the type of the drive to remove. If the drive bay numbers come with the term “NVMe,” it indicates the installed drives are NVMe solid-state drives.

Attention
To make sure that there is adequate system cooling, do not operate the server for more than 2 minutes without either a hard disk drive or a filler panel installed in each bay.

Complete the following steps to remove a hard disk drive.

  1. Make a note of the bay where the hard disk drive is installed: drives must be installed in the bay from which they were removed.
  2. Remove the hard disk drive.
    Figure 1. Hard disk drive installation
    Removing a hard disk drive
    1. Slide the release latch to unlock the drive handle; then, rotate the handle outward.
    2. Pull the handle to remove the drive from the drive bay.
After you remove the hard disk drive:

  1. Install a replacement hard disk drive or filler in the empty drive bay.

  2. If you are instructed to return the drive assembly, follow all packaging instructions, and use any packaging materials for shipping that are supplied to you.

Demo video

Watch the procedure on YouTube