82 Installing System ComponentsHard DrivesYour system supports up to six 2.5-inch SAS, SATA, or SSD hard drives. SeeFigure 3-1.• Mixed hard-drive configurations of SAS and SATA drives are allowed. Inthis configuration, two SAS drives must be installed in hard-drive slots 0and 1 only. The remaining slots can have SATA drives installed.• SSD hard-drive configurations require an integrated PERC storagecontroller, and all drives must be SSD drives.All hard drives are installed at the front of the system and connect to thesystem board through the SAS backplane board. Hard drives are supplied inspecial hot-swappable drive carriers that fit in the hard-drive bays.CAUTION: Before attempting to remove or install a drive while the system isrunning, see the documentation for the integrated storage controller card toensure that the host adapter is configured correctly to support hot-swap driveremoval and insertion.CAUTION: Do not turn off or reboot your system while the drive is being formatted.Doing so can cause a drive failure.NOTE: Use only drives that have been tested and approved for use with the SASbackplane board.When you format a hard drive, allow enough time for the formatting to becompleted. Be aware that high-capacity hard drives can take a number ofhours to format.Removing a Drive BlankNOTE: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty hard-drive bays must havedrive blanks installed.1 Remove the front bezel. See "Removing and Replacing the OptionalFront Bezel."2 Grasp the front of the hard-drive blank, press the release lever on theright side, and slide the blank out until it is free of the drive bay.
