Ditto - I am about to do the same thing, but I am reading of various problems that others have encountered. We need to pressure the DELL DUDES into responding on this issue of mixing drive types.
Thanks for responding to my question, was wondering if the original message even got posted.
You mention reading about problems where IDE has been used as a back-up to SCSI drives. Can you provide any links or key words I can search to read about these?
I don't know why Dell hasn't responded - seems like a pretty straightforward situation that others would want to know about.
Thanks for the info. I now understand the potential pitfalls of installing the IDE in the server and will use some variant of your recommendation to put it in a client box on the network.
Of course you can install IDE drives into the PE1600 it will support up to 4 of them, OR up to 6 SCSI drives (with optional 1x2 drive bay) However If you install IDE drives, the server will try to boot from them period, no BIOS options to change this boot priority.
You should boot to a fault tolerant boot floppy, and then partition and format the IDE drive, copy your boot.ini and related files, edit them as needed and enjoy less reliability as two different partitions must be live to be able to boot.
This is NOT something that Dell technical support will recommend or support doing, it is a bad thing. Put the big HD in a client box and backup to it across the network.
Just another bark, I have an Optiplex 270 that is stuffed with IDE drives. It acts as a video security server at one of my convience stores. It has a Maxtor 300G and 3 Western digital 250s. Thats over a tera-byte of file storage. So far operating for 1 month with windows 2000. No lockups, no read errors, no monkey biz at all, running 24x7.
I haven't taken the plung yet on adding the ide drives but reading about your experience is causing me to consider it again. What I did was to get a USB2 external drive (Maxtor 120 gig) as a way of avoiding mixing with the SCSI. This has worked just fine for me too.
Appreciate it,
Mr_Binks (the name of my Soft Coated Wheaten Terrior!)
Dixie_Dog
10 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 01:00
Ditto - I am about to do the same thing, but I am reading of various problems that others have encountered. We need to pressure the DELL DUDES into responding on this issue of mixing drive types.
Bowow
MR_BINKS
4 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 11:00
Hey Dawg,
Thanks for responding to my question, was wondering if the original message even got posted.
You mention reading about problems where IDE has been used as a back-up to SCSI drives. Can you provide any links or key words I can search to read about these?
I don't know why Dell hasn't responded - seems like a pretty straightforward situation that others would want to know about.
Take Care,
Mr_Binks
MR_BINKS
4 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 13:00
Gary,
Thanks for the info. I now understand the potential pitfalls of installing the IDE in the server and will use some variant of your recommendation to put it in a client box on the network.
Mr_Binks
DELL-GaryS
777 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 13:00
Hi,
Of course you can install IDE drives into the PE1600 it will support up to 4 of them, OR up to 6 SCSI drives (with optional 1x2 drive bay) However If you install IDE drives, the server will try to boot from them period, no BIOS options to change this boot priority.
You should boot to a fault tolerant boot floppy, and then partition and format the IDE drive, copy your boot.ini and related files, edit them as needed and enjoy less reliability as two different partitions must be live to be able to boot.
This is NOT something that Dell technical support will recommend or support doing, it is a bad thing. Put the big HD in a client box and backup to it across the network.
DELL-GaryS
Dixie_Dog
10 Posts
0
February 14th, 2004 23:00
Just another bark, I have an Optiplex 270 that is stuffed with IDE drives. It acts as a video security server at one of my convience stores. It has a Maxtor 300G and 3 Western digital 250s. Thats over a tera-byte of file storage. So far operating for 1 month with windows 2000. No lockups, no read errors, no monkey biz at all, running 24x7.
bowow!
MR_BINKS
4 Posts
0
February 18th, 2004 18:00
Thanks for the update Dawg!
I haven't taken the plung yet on adding the ide drives but reading about your experience is causing me to consider it again. What I did was to get a USB2 external drive (Maxtor 120 gig) as a way of avoiding mixing with the SCSI. This has worked just fine for me too.
Appreciate it,
Mr_Binks (the name of my Soft Coated Wheaten Terrior!)