You are correct. Dell has only validated 1 / 2 / 4 TB drives for the T40.
Drive Bays Up to 3 x 3.5” SATA (HDD), max 12TB* (that would be three 4TB drives)
*Additional hard drives combined with related carrier and cable are available. Please check with your sales representative for additional requests.Reference T40 datasheet : https://dell.to/35lBOjS
You may contact sales to see if we have validated any drives larger than 4 TB. I cannot find any in the information I have.
They would also be able to let you know if you could configure it without and optical drive.
I don't really have much to add to what Charles said. On desktops such as workstations, when you remove ODD and replace it with the SSD, it is very likely to work. However, the parts in the Server product group are often more selective on a firmware basis and there is a risk that non-Dell parts that are not suitable for the relevant server will not work. Still, you can see people running and using non-Dell hard drives on the forum, for example.
There can be users who use it if they try and work on their own responsibility. Since it is usually configured from the factory in Servers, it may not be possible to convert it to a different option of the same model later on. In this sense, I'm not sure what the results can be without trying. If there are users who have already made similar use of the T40, it would be useful for them to share their experiences.
I understand that it's only validated for certain drives.
My question is if there is some arbitrary lock in BIOS that will keep the machine from booting if there are other drives present (or if the ODD is missing)?
The SATA controller itself is from all I can see a standard controller from Intel and does not in it self have any such limitations.
DELL-Charles R
Moderator
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4.7K Posts
0
June 14th, 2021 13:00
Hello Kasper_c,
You are correct. Dell has only validated 1 / 2 / 4 TB drives for the T40.
Drive Bays Up to 3 x 3.5” SATA (HDD), max 12TB* (that would be three 4TB drives)
*Additional hard drives combined with related carrier and cable are available. Please check with your sales representative for additional requests. Reference T40 datasheet : https://dell.to/35lBOjS
You may contact sales to see if we have validated any drives larger than 4 TB. I cannot find any in the information I have.
They would also be able to let you know if you could configure it without and optical drive.
DELL-Erman O
Moderator
•
3K Posts
0
June 15th, 2021 01:00
Hi,
I don't really have much to add to what Charles said. On desktops such as workstations, when you remove ODD and replace it with the SSD, it is very likely to work. However, the parts in the Server product group are often more selective on a firmware basis and there is a risk that non-Dell parts that are not suitable for the relevant server will not work. Still, you can see people running and using non-Dell hard drives on the forum, for example.
There can be users who use it if they try and work on their own responsibility. Since it is usually configured from the factory in Servers, it may not be possible to convert it to a different option of the same model later on. In this sense, I'm not sure what the results can be without trying. If there are users who have already made similar use of the T40, it would be useful for them to share their experiences.
Kasper_c
2 Posts
0
June 15th, 2021 01:00
I understand that it's only validated for certain drives.
My question is if there is some arbitrary lock in BIOS that will keep the machine from booting if there are other drives present (or if the ODD is missing)?
The SATA controller itself is from all I can see a standard controller from Intel and does not in it self have any such limitations.