Adding a SATA PCI adapter to SCSI system

[SirBC]

I setup my server about a year ago with a lot of help from some people here (

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1147359&page=1).

My backup strategy has been to rotate offsite external USB HD's. They are kind of cumbersome though and I had a read failure recently, likey from bumping the drive. I am considering moving to the Quantum GoVault (

http://www.quantum.com/Products/removabledrives/Index.aspx)

as the cartridges are supposedly "ruggedized " and can withstand a a drop of 1 meter. I think this may present a few snags though.

I have a Dell Poweredge 2800 in a SCSI RAID 1/RAID 5 configuration. The GoVault is a SATA drive and my server is strictly SCSI. This brings up a
few questions:

1. Would adding a SATA PCI adapter cause any conflicts/problems in a SCSI
system? Another user here had the exact same idea as me and was trying to use the GoVault on his SCSI system using a SATA card, but he was having some problems (

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1244906).

2. If not, can anyone recommend a SATA PCI adapter?
3. A quick search on the Dell forums leads me to believe that I may not be able to use the GoVault for two reasons. One, I don't think my PSU comes with a SATA power connector. And two, my media bay is configured with two drives in a RAID 1 hotswap config so I'm not sure have anywhere to put the GoVault.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[BigFunkyChief]

My gut feeling is that you can add a SATA controller to a system that has an existing SCSI controller. I don't see how they would conflict, being 2 different controllers.

I've used a Promise SATA300 TX2 before, worked fine.

As far as the SATA power connector goes, you can get an adapter to easily convert regular 4-pin power connectors to a SATA connector. For the GoVault, sounds like you don't have the room, and would have to find a way to mount it...either by removing a CD-ROM drive and installing a 5 1/4 tray for a hard drive, or find another creative way.

Hope this helps some.

"Rule #1 - When stumped, check your Event Logs!

 

[SirBC]

I've heard that there will be an external GoVault in next couple of months so I will wait for that. I've heard good things about the Promise cards so I will give that one a try first.
Thanks!

Dave

 

[essenmeinstuff]

Hi

I have an older poweredge 4400 server with PERC2/dc and on board SCSI, I added an IDE Raid PCI card with no problems.

However later when I updated the system bios from A03 to A11 it rearranged the order of the drive controllers in bios and flipped out the windows boot order! It consequently wouldn't boot and I got the "NTLDR not found" message...

The solution to that was to unplug the IDE controller card, let it boot off the SCSI controller, redo the boot.ini file, shutdown, plug in the controller card and start the system again and then it was fine! I suspect using the repair option on the windows install disk would also fix the issue with out having to pull the card, but I didn't try this as I figured that out after the fact...

Also curiously the system would hang on post if there was no hard drive plugged into the card for some reason, initially it caused lots of hair pulling as I just wanted it for running a DVD-R drive!!

Hope this helps!

Eric