[GanjaTron]

Hi everyone,

is there anyone else still using those full-height 5.25" bricks from Seagate in their heavy iron SGIs? I've had a trio of ST43400N HDDs in my Power Series, all of which have failed or are now on their last legs -- luckily I managed to image them before they're totally dead.

The drives basically fail to spin up at all, or after several retries, only to spin down again in operation (fortunately XFS has a journal!), and sometimes they even cause the entire system to reset or power cycle!

Has anyone else had this issue or can recommend a more reliable replacement with >=3Gb in the same form factor?? Seems to be a very common fault with these drives. By contrast, I have a Maxtor of the same vintage in my Crimson that has no issues (yet).


Thanks for any hints,

--Roland

[weblacky]

Well...maybe. I have used this drive: SEAGATE barracuda ST1181677LCV 181 GB which is a 80-pin SCA form factor but it is ALSO is a HALF HEIGHT drive in several SGIs (including Indigo2 / w adapter on sled). They run pretty cool, don't sound like a jet engine and have been reliable thus far for 15+ years. They "used to be" extremely cheap on eBay due to the being "the drive" used in SCSI data center arrays in the late 90's but most modern-ish SCSI systems demanded LOW-PROFILE drives, so HALF HEIGHTs were cheap and usable back then.

I know you asked for FULL Height drives but have you considered half-height instead? Just use a normal 3.5" to 5.25" mounting bracket to get it held down the sled might work, or is there something about the Sleds you need to mount these drives to that make adapting difficult?

Thanks

[jan-jaap]

is there anyone else still using those full-height 5.25" bricks from Seagate in their heavy iron SGIs?

Pretty sure I have the 760MB (ST4767N) in my 4D/380VGX and 4D/440VGX. These are original SGI branded disks. I think there's an even older ~ 300MB disk in my 4D/70GT.

I know you asked for FULL Height drives but have you considered half-height instead?  Just use a normal 3.5" to 5.25" mounting bracket to get it held down the sled might work, or is there something about the Sleds you need to mount these drives to that make adapting difficult?

Aesthetics? The adapters work (assuming you can still find them), but you'd be left with a gaping hole behind the drive bay door.

FWIW: a "real" disk tray to mount a 3.5" disk in a Crimson / PowerSeries existed as well. From the front it looks like a Challenge/Onyx tray but it fits the Diehard2 chassis. It's half height so you need a blank for the other half of the full height opening. I've got one in my Crimson, can take a picture if interested.

These days you should be able to fabricate something with a 3D printer to make it look presentable.

[GanjaTron]

Hi JJ and all, and thanks for the replies.

So one can just shut the drive bay doors, aesthetics are secondary at the end of the day. Diehard PowerSeries and Crimson have two half-height bays, one of which is usually (at least in my case) already occupied by the obligatory CD drive.

It does seem like a bodge having a 5.25" to 3.5" adapter in a sled (which I understand was originally used in the Personal IRIS), but theoretically it should work as long as the adapter mounts the drive from the sides. I never knew SGI offered a "direct" 3.5" sled for these chassis tho (thanks for the info, JJ).

I've read the Barracudas (at least the early ones) also tended to have issues, but these later Elites really seem to have a consistent design flaw for them to totally drop like flies, even with little use. I still don't understand if it's a mechanical fault (worn bearings?) or an electronic failure. Maybe they prefer to be installed horizontally. Granted, this was apparently Seagate's highest capacity drive back in the day.

It surprises me how expensive these old bricks have now gotten; last time I looked folks were still chucking them or giving them away as freebies.

As for the jet noise; suffice to say you can hardly hear the drive(s) in these chassis anyway, so it's a non-issue.

Anyway, I'll keep looking. Thanks for the feedback!

[jan-jaap]

The disk tray in my Crimson. The disk itself (18GB narrow half height 3.5" SCSI) is not original SGI so the SCSI ID dial at the front currently isn't functional.





I recently noticed some production dates ~ Q2 1994 on the Crimson's internals so I guess by then the full height 5.25" disks were going out of fashion.

[GanjaTron]

Whoa! Hey JJ, where'd you get that thing? Never seen one of those...

I have an earlier Crimson (allegedly it was a demo unit at Cebit when they introduced the RE), and it came with a 5.25" Maxtor as root disk, which has given me no issues yet. I got those crap Elites with it, but AFAIK SGI never shipped them.

I think I'm gonna have to bodge something out of my remaining 3.5" adapters. Too bad I chucked most of them a few years back.