Skip to main content

Installing a 3.5-inch hot-swap hard disk drive

Use this information to install a 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA hard disk drive.

Before installing a 3.5-inch hot-swap hard disk drive, read the following information:
  • Inspect the drive tray for signs of damage.
  • To maintain proper system cooling, do not operate the server for more than 10 minutes without either a drive or a filler panel installed in each drive bay.
  • You do not have to turn off the server to install hot-swap drives in the hot-swap drive bays.

Read the safety information in Safety and Installation guidelines.

To install a 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA hard disk drive, complete the following steps.

  1. Unlock the left-side cover.
    Note
    You must unlock the left-side cover to open or remove the bezel. When you lock the left-side cover, it locks both the cover and the bezel.
  2. Open the bezel (see Opening the bezel door).
  3. Remove the filler panel, if one is present.
  4. Touch the static-protective package that contains the disk drive to any unpainted metal surface on the server; then, remove the disk drive from the package and place it on a static-protective surface.
  5. Make sure that the drive tray handle is in the open position.
  6. Align the drive assembly with the guide rail in the bay; then, carefully slide the drive assembly into the drive bay until the drive snaps into place.
    Figure 1. Hot-swap hard disk drive installation
    Hot-swap hard disk drive installation
  7. Rotate the drive tray handle to the closed position.
  8. Check the hard disk drive status indicator to make sure that the hard disk drive is operating correctly. After you replace a failed hard disk drive, the green activity LED flashes as the disk spins up. The yellow LED turns off after approximately 1 minute. If the new drive starts to rebuild, the yellow LED flashes slowly, and the green activity LED remains lit during the rebuild process. If the yellow LED remains lit, see the Hard disk drive problems for more information.
    Note
    You might have to reconfigure the disk arrays after you install hard disk drives. See the RAID documentation on the website at the Lenovo Support Portal for information about RAID adapters.

If you have other devices to install or remove, do so now. Otherwise, go to Completing the installation.