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Dell PowerEdge 1650
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Dell PowerEdge 1650

SCSI Backplane

The PowerEdge 1650 supports U160 Low-Voltage Differential SCSI drives. These drives are capable of peak transfer rates up to 160MB/sec. The backplane will support hot-plug drives with ROMB (Raid On Motherboard), and conform to the minimum requirements of the SAF-TE specification.

Click on the photo of the backplane (below) to change between top and bottom views.

This is a picture of the SCSI backplane, viewed from the bottom. Click on this picture to flip the image.
Key features of the SCSI backplane:

  • The SCSI backplane will only operate in a 1x3 configuration with only one host adapter connection. It does not have the capability to be split.
  • Slim CD and slim floppy connectors are on the backplane, same as in PowerEdge 1550. All SCSI, IDE and floppy signals are routed from the system board via a high-density connector (216 pin HDM connector).
  • If the IDE Hard Drive option is sold the SCSI backplane will not be installed
  • There will be a customer kit available that will offer the conversion from IDE Hard Drives to SCSI Hard Drives
  • Empty drive bays have a blank drive carrier to maintain proper cooling, a uniform appearance to the unit, and to provide EMI shielding.

SCSI backplane removal
 Removing the SCSI Backplane

Step 1: Press the SCSI backplane release tab towards the front power supply location.
This image illustrates the system backplane, with the release tab highlighted.

This image illustrates how to depress the system backplane's release tab.
Step 2: While holding the SCSI backplane release tab towards the power supply, grasp the opposite end of the SCSI backplane and lift up to remove.
This image illustrates how to lift the backplane out of the system.
IDE Hard Drive support

The PowerEdge 1650 is also designed to support IDE drives. Additional information on this topic is included in the section on SCSI Controllers/RAID.

With the IDE configuration the following changes are made:
  • Only two IDE drives are supported.
  • The IDE drives are mounted inside the chassis where the SCSI drive bays are located.
  • The IDE hard drive carrier is different from SCSI drive carrier.
  • The SCSI backplane will not be installed.
  • In addition to two 1x4 IDE power connectors, there are headers on the planar to connect to the floppy drive, CD drive, and IDE hard drives.
  • Systems with IDE disks are only supported if the metal bar is installed to keep the IDE carriers in place.
Removing the IDE Hard-Disk Drives

The following procedure outlines the process for removing a IDE hard-disk drive.

 Removing IDE Hard Drives

Before removing the IDE hard-disk drives, the following steps must be performed:

  • Remove the front bezel.
  • Open the top panels.
Step 1: Rotate the drive-retention bracket lock pin 180°.
This is a picture of the 1650 with drive-retention bracket's lock pin highlighted
Step 2: Grasp the drive-retention bracket and rotate it away from the chassis. Unhook the locking bar from the end next to the control panel.
This is a picture of the 1650's drive-retention bracket being rotated away from the chassis
Step 3: Disconnect the power cable connector from the back of the IDE hard-disk drive.
This picture illustrates how the power connection should be removed from the IDE hard drive
Step 4: Disconnect the IDE cable connector from the back of the IDE hard-disk drive.
This picture illustrates how the IDE cable should be removed from the IDE hard drive
Step 5: Grasp the IDE hard-disk drive carrier and pull it forward to remove the drive from the chassis.
This is a picture of the IDE drive carrier being pulled forward, away from the chassis
Step 6: Repeat this procedure for the remaining IDE hard-disk drive.
This is a picture of additional IDE drives within the 1650

IDE Secondary Channel
In order to accommodate the PowerEdge 1650's design, which supports either internal SCSI drives or IDE drives, connection of the IDE hard drives to the secondary channel of the IDE controller is required. Under certain operating systems, this may appear as “non-standard”; however, no performance issues should be encountered.

The devices are not connected as an operating system installation may expect them to be. Therefore, an installation will fail in cases where the installation scripts expect to see the first IDE drive at hda.

Below are messages that may appear if an IDE drive is being accessed at hda on the PowerEdge 1650:
  • Unable to open /dev/hda.
  • FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive
  • Press any key to exit cfdisk
  • /dev/hda: No such device
  • sfdisk: cannot open /dev/hda read-write

In Linux when these messages are encountered, either changing the installation scripts to point to IDE drives at hdc and hdd, or installing Linux from the Linux OS CD will resolve the issue.

The location of the first IDE drive can be found by using some Linux commands as follows:
  • /proc/partitions will display hdc instead of hda.
  • /proc/ide/hdc/media will display disk.
  • /proc/ide/hda/media will display CD.

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