Md1200 VD sc200

Please help

i wanted a lot of cheap high quality storage.

On e-bay, I found that the compellant shelves were significantly less expensive than powervault shelves of the same age.

After research, which indicated that people were having success in using the compellant shelves instead of powervault, I purchased a sc220 and two sc200 units. I filled them with 500gb constellations in the case of the sc220 and 2tb constellations in case of the sc200 units. 

I have a r510 with an H800. It boots then whines about a topology error. If I boot with the shelves unconnected, go into the h800 setup, then plug up the shelves, all is fine. I can configure all, but next boot - topology error. So I have to go in to raid setup with the shelves unplugged, then plug them back in, make certain the configuration is fine, and all is good.

I thought....well....I can get the MD1200 controller cards cheap, let me try that. No....No.... I can connect....to a single shelf by hooking in to the side marked out. The side that is marked in....is dead. I know it is something minor on either the controller cartridges or the backplane.....likely having something to do with the MD1200 being able to split the enclosure in two. It isn’t that simple. Because if it were, I would simply daisy chain the the units on the one side. And the unit that is seen...all the drives are seen. So in some way, only half the md1200 controller works in a sc200 enclosure.

I love Dell and hate them too. I swear they did this to keep people from doing exactly what I am trying to do.

Should I snap up the MD1200 and 1220 backplanes off eBay and put them in the compellant enclosures? If I do that, will the shelves be split or together without having the front panel switch?

I have h200 cards I am going to flash to IT mode. After doing that, could I simply use the compellant stuff? Will it still whine about a topology fault?

If one of the Dell guys on here could tell me the tricks with these units, it would be great. It’s all old now, so it isn’t as if money is a stake. 

So please, someone tell me the ins and outs on these and the little tricks. Schematics etc.