[echo]

yes i really want to preserve whatever is on this drive. i tried looking up how to break in and apparently its easy if you take the drive out and mount it under linux, then you can change the root password in a text editor like vi. there are other ways of doing it but that seems to be the easiest way.

but i don't have any adaptec scsi card in my pc to attach it to. will any adaptec card work for this? i can get one on ebay if you recommend me some good inexpensive models. it would be so nice if there was a external enclosure i could put the hdd into too, or some scsi to usb enclosure thing so i don't need a adaptec card.

i did not order an extra hdd yet, i do want to but i'm really not sure about which ones are going to be ok or not. you brought up a lot of things about them that i never considered, and i'm not sure if those would become problems or not. another thing was, i'm not sure if the ones with drive sleds on them are welded on or can be easily taken apart. since we need to put it on a sled for the octane2 and i dont think the sleds are all the same type.