Advice on upgrading from IDE to SATA

Hello,

I purchased the original MD-1200 system around 2.5 years ago and have been extremely happy with it. However, I've reached the point where continuing with IDE only drives just does not make sense. Most of my drives are > 95% full, and most are 500GB drives at this point. I can get a little more time out of it by purchasing a few more 500GB drives, but that only gives me a little more space (320 -> 500G).

So, I'm looking for any advice you folks may have as how I should proceed. It seems that IDE/SATA mixes are well supported with recent versions (I'm still running version 3.0 - works for me!). The main goals I have are:

1. Drive trays - I love how easy it is to swap drives, and I'd like to keep it that way. If I need to buy new trays for the SATA drives, that's fine. I just don't want to have to open the case or deal with a lot of screws when I swap them out eventually.

2. Somewhat economical. I would like to keep most of what I have, and step into using SATA. To start, let's say the parity drive and a couple of others.

3. Scalable. I would prefer to not have to undo things in order to expand later. Ultimately I see using this case with all 12 drives as SATA.

Any advice is much appreciated! I have a couple of weeks off the end of the year and would love to take the plunge. I'm quite comfortable with Linux, but am really not sure of the best approach here since hardware is not my area of expertise.

Thanks for your time,

Jeff

My system is pretty much identical to yours, however, there is a way to get a bit more life out of your (and my) server.

First, there are two SATA ports on the Intel motherboard.  I've put them into use on SATA drives. (I have two 1TB SATA drives., one for parity, the other for data)  Now, the SATA drives are not in drive trays, they are in a small two disk cage assembly sitting behind the lower power supply.  I mounted an 80mm fan behind then to blow air between them so they keep cool.

Next, you can get an inexpensive PCI based SATA card.  I picked up a 2 port one for under $20. at the local computer store.  You can run the cables out the back of the server and mount the disks in external enclosures.  They can sit on top of the server.

That will give you 4 more drives easily, more if you get a  4 port SATA card instead of a 2 port.

Unfortunately you cannot just get a new Tray to switch from IDE to SATA... you must get the tray and the drawer it slides into.  It in turn must have an SATA interface on its back instead of an IDE interface, You will have to real with screws and swapping out tray hardware at some point.

Joe L.

I have the same set up except I drilled a hole in the top of my case and ran the SATA cables out of it and the drives are sitting in a 4in3 rack.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1978.0  Here's the PCI card I bought to make 4 extra drives.  The only problem with the whole set up is you'll basically be at SATA I speeds.

Eventually I would like to replace all the IDE drives and might soon if the 1.5TB and 2TB drives go on sale.  As for the racks I'd like to get cases too but singles are expensive and you'd still need an external case for the 4 that wouldn't fit.  I've found single trays for around 20 on newegg.

This 4 in 3 removable rack is $75 each and you would need 4 of them but it would give all 16 drives enclosed in our case.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990004

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121913  This one is $80 a piece

Limetech is currently using a 5 in 3 for $109 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405&Tpk=CSE-M35T-1B

For me I'm going to for the larger drives.  I need to figure out if I can fit all my data on 3 1.5 GB SATA drives and then I could use my current setup and then later upgrade the motherboard and then trays as I need to add more storage.  This might be the most economical approach.  Looking on ebay going rate for an IDE 500GB used drive is about $50 and a 300GB is $20.  It might just be time to look at upgrading after all 

As I was looking for trays I found this http://www.usb-ware.com/ide-sata-hard-drive-adapter-bridge.htm not sure if it would work with unraid but you could then add more SATA ports via the PATA channels on our boards allowing you to delay upgrading motherboards.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.

I had read about using the existing ports and using external drives, but my preference is really to keep everything inside the case, at least for now.The 4/5 in 3 racks might be an option, are they pretty easy to install in the existing case? Meaning is it a matter of using existing holes for the screws or does it take more than that?

I can dig around the forums for SATA cards that unraid supports, but it sounds like it comes down to the following approach:

1. upgrade unraid software

2. add the SATA card, and switch parity drive from IDE to SATA (assuming this is pretty easy w/ newer unraid software)

3. upgrade from IDE to SATA one drive at a time.

Am I missing anything here?

Thanks much,

Jeff

OK, I just took the plunge and ordered the following:

(1) SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405)

(1) SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009)

(2) Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151)

I'll report back how it all goes, probably be a couple of weeks before I dive in.

J

All this talking about upgrading and then a 15% paypal coupon from Newegg for the 15th only an I took the plunge

Dual Core E1200http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116064

Open Box MSI P43 Neo3-F (8 SATA ports)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130185R

OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB)

KINGWIN KF-4000 trayless sata 4 in 3http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990004&Tpk=Kingwin%204000]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269/url]

KINGWIN KF-4000 trayless sata 4 in 3http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990004&Tpk=Kingwin%204000

HITACHI Deskstar 1TB Drive[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145167]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145167

Now once it comes in I'll have some PATA drive and trays to sell along with the original motherboard, promise controllers and a SATA I controller

Congrats on the upgrades, it is that time of year! I ordered an additional 1TB drive myself. I've come up with the plan below as to how I'll tackle this upgrade. If anyone sees a problem or if there is a more efficient way, please let me know. The most I have done so far is add new drives or swap old ones (parity & data) with larger. What I have planned is quite a bit more involved...

Current setup:

parity device:  /dev/hda (hda1) PATA:ST3500630A/3QG03WKT

disk1 device: /dev/hdb (hdb1) PATA:WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2284164

disk2 device: /dev/hdc (hdc1) PATA:ST3500630A/9QG7NQ40

disk3 device: /dev/hdd (hdd1) PATA:ST3500630A/9QGAAA0V

disk4 device: /dev/hdi (hdi1) PATA:ST3500630A/9QGABCJK

disk5 device: /dev/hdj (hdj1) PATA:WDC WD2000BB-00DWA0/WD-WMAEH1579512

disk6 device: /dev/hdk (hdk1) PATA:WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR3720880

disk7 device: /dev/hdl (hdl1) PATA:WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR3684289

disk8 device: /dev/hde (hde1) PATA:WDC WD3200JB-00KFA0/WD-WCAMR2193497

disk9 device: /dev/hdf (hdf1) PATA:ST3500630A/3QG04E2K

disk10 device: /dev/hdg (hdg1) PATA:ST3500630A/5QG1MRAK

disk11 device: /dev/hdh (hdh1) PATA:ST3500630A/9QG7NWFW

Adding the following:

(1) SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405)

(1) SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009)

(3) Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151)

End goals:

* Top 3 5.25 slots will hold the 5 in 3 enclosure & 3 SATA drives.

* Parity disk will run off on of the onboard SATA connections.

* Other 2 SATA drives run off the controller card.

* The 200G and 1 320G drives will be upgraded to 500G IDE drives.

Upgrade plan:

1. Upgrade from version 3.0 to version 4.4 final.

2. Run a full parity check.

3. Power down and attach 1 new drive to the onboard SATA connector (not mounted in case yet).

4. Power up, stop the array, unassign the parity drive, make the new onboard drive the new parity drive. Old parity drive is left unassigned.

5. Rebuild, and wait for the new array to come online.

6. Power down, install controller card, attach remaining 2 SATA drives (not mounted in case yet).

7. Add these two new drives to the array, wait for formatting, and for the array to come online. (Can both of these blank drives be added at once?)

8. Copy the contents of disk1 and disk2 to the new data drives.

9. Remove disk1 and disk2 from the array.

10. Power down, remove top 3 IDE drives, install the new 5 in 3 enclosure, power back up.

11. At this point, array should be functional, 2 500G drives and 1 320G drive available.

12. Power down, swap the 200G drive (disk5) with one of the 500G drives.

13. Power on, format drive, contents rebuilt from parity.

14. Power down, swap the 320G drive (disk6) with remaining 500G drive.

15. Power on, format drive, contents rebuilt from parity.

16. The 200G drive and 2 320G drives free to use for other purposes.

Any feedback is GREATLY appreciated!

Jeff

My motherboard has decided it is time for me to upgrade...  (It no longer will even show the BIOS page when it boots, in fact, there is no video at all through the boot process, if it is even trying to boot.)  I've tried disconnecting everything, and even a different power supply, but no luck.  Only thing left connected was the CPU, memory, keyboard and monitor.  It just does nothing, it starts to power up, then immediately shuts down.

I decided on the same motherboard as in Tom's new server offering...  He's probably done a lot to identify a good running board, and odds are it will run circles around my old original Intel D865GLCLK  motherboard. 

The new MB I just ordered from newegg is a Supermicro MBD-C2SEE.  It has 4 PCI slots, so I can use my existing PCI based IDE controller cards short term, and it has 6 SATA ports on the MB, so I should be set for expansion for a while.

With any luck, I'll have everything for the weekend.  Unfortunately, the memory and CPU from the old MB are not usable on the new, so they too are on order....  I figure I'll gift wrap the boxes, put them under my Christmas tree, and just think of them as early presents... (even if I have to pay for them myself)

Joe L.

Wow, that's rough. How are you getting by in the meantime? Good luck with your upgrade, seems like it is that time of the year!

Very very sorry, Joe.  What a bummer!

I did think "yum yum" after your comment elsewhere about my enjoyment of syslogs!  But I only had time for a quick look, and nothing stood out that explained the problems, and you were already getting great suggestions, so decided it had to wait for much more time, deeper analysis.  Sounds like it may have been trying to warn you of its impending demise.