techknight
Well-known member
Hey guys, I decided to spring for a 2004ish era 2.5" Seagate Savvio series U320 HDD that they used in the old IBM blade servers. These are all over ebay for pretty cheap prices.
ST936701LC series. 36.4GB
Now-a-days its SAS using the SATA interface.
Since they are SCA-80 drives, they wont just "plug right in" I found the user manual to the HDD that explains the hard disk and its protocol in full detail, it supports backwards compatible SE mode, and supports narrow transfer bus. So we are good there the firmware supports different modes and the OEM can set which mode the drive defaults in, OEM or not the drive can be set to operate in other modes via firmware which i may have to setup using SCSI utilities so itll default in narrow mode.
It wont be exactly easy because I am going to remove the connector and replace it with a rewired connection that will plug into the SCSI connector for a powerbook, and since the LC version of the drive has no termination, i will have to device termination resistors at the PCB end.
Also, the next hardest thing is the fact that these drives require both 5V AND 12v. they spin/idle at relatively low currents, but at spinup time they could pull a maximum of 2 amps for a fraction of a second until it reaches speed.
Hopefully this hack works out, it might take some modifications in the power circuitry department to make this little guy go. But before i start hacking away at the drives, I have adapters that will take the SCA-80 to 68, and then a 68 to 50 with termination. So, i can goof off with it first before i start hacking away.
ST936701LC series. 36.4GB
Now-a-days its SAS using the SATA interface.
Since they are SCA-80 drives, they wont just "plug right in" I found the user manual to the HDD that explains the hard disk and its protocol in full detail, it supports backwards compatible SE mode, and supports narrow transfer bus. So we are good there the firmware supports different modes and the OEM can set which mode the drive defaults in, OEM or not the drive can be set to operate in other modes via firmware which i may have to setup using SCSI utilities so itll default in narrow mode.
It wont be exactly easy because I am going to remove the connector and replace it with a rewired connection that will plug into the SCSI connector for a powerbook, and since the LC version of the drive has no termination, i will have to device termination resistors at the PCB end.
Also, the next hardest thing is the fact that these drives require both 5V AND 12v. they spin/idle at relatively low currents, but at spinup time they could pull a maximum of 2 amps for a fraction of a second until it reaches speed.
Hopefully this hack works out, it might take some modifications in the power circuitry department to make this little guy go. But before i start hacking away at the drives, I have adapters that will take the SCA-80 to 68, and then a 68 to 50 with termination. So, i can goof off with it first before i start hacking away.