-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Sterling Woodcock [mailto:sirbruce@ix.netcom.com] If you find out something useful in your filer experience, plesae pass it along, even if it's of the "I didn't read the manual, so I did this and it crashed" variety.
While we're airing dirty laundry -- a couple of months ago, I mentioned to the list that we wanted to try to replace our F210's 4GB SCSI disks with 9GB disks (full shelf, no more shelves available from NetApp).
I replaced two of the 4GB disks with 9GB ones, and all was well (of course, the filer only used 4 of the 9GB, but we figured we'd dump to tape, rebuild the file system, then restore once all the drives were in place).
So I'm opening the 3rd disk carrier, removing the flex circuit from the disk drive (has anyone else ever tried to do this? How the #$%! do you do it?) by prying with a screwdriver, and the screwdriver goes right through the circuit. D'oh!
I did find that I was able to call Compaq and order a new circuit (only $96 for that tiny little piece!). Still waiting on delivery, though. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish I'd known you could still order these parts -- I could have built a couple of my own carriers and had them ready to go into the filer instead of failing a drive, disassembling the carrier, reassembling the carrier, and reinstalling.
Jason Priebe WRAL OnLine http://www.wral-tv.com/
While we're airing dirty laundry -- a couple of months ago, I mentioned to the list that we wanted to try to replace our F210's 4GB SCSI disks with 9GB disks (full shelf, no more shelves available from NetApp).
I replaced two of the 4GB disks with 9GB ones, and all was well (of course, the filer only used 4 of the 9GB, but we figured we'd dump to tape, rebuild the file system, then restore once all the drives were in place).
Bad idea. The DEC shelves and their power supply can't handle those 9GB drives, which is one reason among many that Netapp switched to the Eurologic shelves. A couple might work fine, but the drain on the power can actually bring the voltage on your write signal down low enough that your disk writes will become unreliable and eventually result in a corrupted filesystem and lost data.
Not to mention the other reasons why the F210 was limited in the size of storage it can support, which I'm sure you've heard. :)
So I'm opening the 3rd disk carrier, removing the flex circuit from the disk drive (has anyone else ever tried to do this? How the #$%! do you do it?) by prying with a screwdriver, and the screwdriver goes right through the circuit. D'oh!
I believe they have special tools you can buy for that sort of thing.
Bruce
On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Priebe, Jason wrote:
So I'm opening the 3rd disk carrier, removing the flex circuit from the disk drive (has anyone else ever tried to do this? How the #$%! do you do it?) by prying with a screwdriver, and the screwdriver goes right through the circuit. D'oh!
I'd try needle-nose pliers and avoid any contact between the trace and any tool. Pry it millimeter (or less) by millimeter alternating the sides. On a side note since you already have ruined one of the strips, why not rewire it with real wire? However, if you are as handy with the soldering iron as you are with the scredriver it will probably cost you less to simply purchase it from Digital. ;)
Tom
P.S. Sorry for using "Digital" instead of "Compaq," but I think that: a) Digital produced much better things than Compaq did b) Technologically, Digital brought more to the table than Compaq
Sentimental alpha lover. :)
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Bruce Sterling Woodcock -
Priebe, Jason -
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