What do you do when you don't want to buy more fancy Apple drives?

September 9, 2008 7:27 PM

Older Apple Hardware Filter: My Google-fu has failed me. Anyone have some resources on/experience with replacing Apple-branded SATA drives in a G5 XServe with non-Apple-branded ones?

I've found fragments of information about this scattered hither and yon, but here's the short story. I'm helping a school with a failed drive in one of their Apple Drive Modules (2x250GB). I had assumed the G5 was like the G4 -- you could use non-Apple drives. However, I've seen some people have limited success (in the few posts I can find) doing so in the G5s, and maybe some drives are compatible but others aren't, and.....argh.

I'd suggest they just buy new Apple Drive Modules, but they're stupidly expensive -- education, trying to keep costs down, etc.

So, does anyone have experience with this? Suggestions? Recommendations? I'm looking specifically for those with some hands-on experience with the G5 model, as the Xeon/Intel units are significantly different, it appears.

posted by liquado to computers & internet (9 comments total)

AFAIK The Apple branded drives have been super certified for server use. Supposedly things like spin rate have been tuned so they work better in RAIDS. You can use any pair of drives. The performance may not be the absolute best, but they will work. BTW The only way to get those replacement drives from Apple is through a service provider since they've all been discontinued as finished goods parts.
posted by Gungho at 7:35 PM on September 9, 2008

Also, note that the drive sled for the XServe does not seem to be sold as a standalone part by anyone.
posted by Caviar at 8:16 PM on September 9, 2008

The company I work for has two XServe RAID units (ca. 2004) with 250GB modules. We recently had one of the original drives go bad (a Hitachi unit, if I remember correctly). We've replaced drives before with official modules, but since we can't get our hands on any, we popped the drive out of the sled and replaced it with a 300GB Maxtor IDE drive. We plugged it in and RAID Utility recognized the drive and started rebuilding (it was part of a RAID-5 array). It's been running for about a month now with no problems.

I'm not sure about the XServe itself, but the largest drive size the RAID supports is 750GB using the latest firmware. All of this, though, assumes that the XServe and XServe RAID behave the same.
posted by phrayzee at 8:30 PM on September 9, 2008

Off-shelf drives will work.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:03 PM on September 9, 2008

I don't know of a modern Mac that *wont* take normal off-the-shelf drives.
posted by mrbill at 9:40 PM on September 9, 2008

Thanks all -- I tested with a SATA drive out of my G5 tower, and it mounted fine, so I'm going to assume that I can go forward with ordering regular drives.
posted by liquado at 8:43 AM on September 10, 2008

I've replaced ATA and SATA HDs in Xserves for years with off-the-shelf drives. While Apple's official position (which is often repeated by consultants) is that you should use HDs that come from Apple, there's nothing overly special about them. I keep reading and hearing about "special firmware" on the HDs and whatnot, but am convinced after long experience that it's a myth, if not outright intentional misinformation.

You're correct about the drive sleds (Apple Drive Modules) being hard to find, and even when you can order them from Apple, they're backordered all the time.

Short answer: go ahead and replace the HDs with off-the-shelf ones. Some people like to match up vendor and as-similar-as-possible models. For instance, if you're pulling a Hitachi 250GB that spins at 7200rpm, you might replace it with a 500GB Hitachi that spins at 7200rpm.

One thing that everyone agrees upon is that the HDs in your RAID should all be identical in make and model. And if you're building a RAID5 array of three HDs, you should purchase a hot spare of the same make and model so that you have a HD to swap out when (not if) one of your HDs fails. Sometimes, HD models are discontinued by the manufacturer and become impossible to find (looking at you, 400GB Hitachi SATA).
posted by mrbarrett.com at 12:25 PM on September 10, 2008

It should be noted that many people are reporting problems trying to use off-the-shelf hard drives in ADM's in the new Intel Xserves. They just aren't recognized. It's causing quite a lot of consternation in the Mac Enterprise and Mac sysadmin circles.

So, if you've an Xserve G4 or G5, you can likely use off-the-shelf HDs with few problems. If you have an Intel Xserve, you may be stuck with Apple's overpriced drives in their ADM's.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 2:12 PM on March 30

I have an Intel Xserve, and I've put off the shelf drives in it. It is less than 1 year old.
posted by Caviar at 6:49 PM on March 30