SAS drives on desktop

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xpd

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#296122 23-May-2022 12:11

I don't tend to get too involved with server hardware too much, so a little lacking on experience and knowledge.......

I've got two 2TB SAS drives from an old Windows server that I had for a while at home..... but sold the server and kept the drives, not even thinking about what type they were.

Anyway, I now would like to use them if possible but my home "server" is just an old desktop running Win 10 Pro.

If I install a card such as this, in theory I could access the drives ? (They were not in RAID)

TIA

XPD / Gavin

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xpd

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#2917615 23-May-2022 12:32

Oh... and I need particular SAS cables wont I.... curses... wonder if any of those in work storeroom.... and crap. WHat I thought were SAS connectors actually SATA on this card, only has the external SAS. Wonde rif any other cards sitting around....

XPD / Gavin

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xpd

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#2917620 23-May-2022 12:45

This is going to be more frustrating than I thought. Might have to wait until our play server at work is released to us then Ill throw them into that....

XPD / Gavin

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Lias

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#2917626 23-May-2022 13:15

Okay so..

SAS controllers can handle SAS and SATA drives, but not vice versa. That card appears to be a SAS Controller (or else it wouldn't have the external SAS port). Some SAS controllers, particularly older / lower end ones, have internal SATA connectors, ostensibly for a small amount of internal storage with an external DAS or similar.

Because you don't have a backplane in your desktop, you're going to need a 8482 to 8087 adapter cable like THIS

You could then potentially grab a 8087 to 8088 adapter like THIS then an external 8088 cable like THIS to loop it back into that controller, but it's cheaper/easier to just get a new raid controller with an internal 8087 port because you can pick them up for less than the cost of that 8087/8088 adapter. Even more so given I've got a box of them and don't mind giving you one (you'll still need the 8482 adapter cable)

Depending on the controller, you will possibly need to flash it so that it can run in IT/JBOD mode rather than raid mode.

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Shapenz

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#2917633 23-May-2022 14:04

Where are you located? I have some external SAS to internal cables you could borrow to retrieve your data

richms

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#2917644 23-May-2022 14:38

If you just want to copy off whats on the drives then I could chuck them into my expander and clone onto something else. If you're thinking of using them on desktop as game drives or something, I wouldnt bother since 2TB sata drives are so cheap now vs the hassle of putting the card in etc.

Richard rich.ms

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#2917665 23-May-2022 15:42

Shapenz:

Where are you located? I have some external SAS to internal cables you could borrow to retrieve your data

Whangaparaoa, Auckland.

XPD / Gavin

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xpd

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#2917666 23-May-2022 15:43

richms:

If you just want to copy off whats on the drives then I could chuck them into my expander and clone onto something else. If you're thinking of using them on desktop as game drives or something, I wouldnt bother since 2TB sata drives are so cheap now vs the hassle of putting the card in etc.

My thought was if I can use them on my "Server", then great, another 4TB of storage... but seems to be getting expensive/complicated to do ;) I cant even remember whats on the drives.......

I may take you up on your offer if something else dosent present itself :D

XPD / Gavin

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