Hot swap drives in Z600 Z400 Z800 v2

[SDH]

EDIT:  This feature is not supported by HP, and there are different types of eSATA "bridges" used in external eSATA drives that may have their own unique characteristics that could interfere with this functionality.  For example, I have some eSATA drives that automatically power down into a personal sleep type mode after a certain period of inactivity, and others that do not (this auto-power-down happens even if the OS is being used but the drive itself has not been  accessed during the time period).  You'll just need to experiment.

We've been using eSATA external drives for HP workstation image captures and cloning (via Acronis True Image software) for years now.  This allows backup and the ability to clone from that image to another identical (or similar) properly licensed workstation assuming the HP OEM COA auto-activation type of Restore/Recover installer has been used for the original build.

Back during the xw6400 era there was no eSATA setting in BIOS, but I found I could use a short high quality eSATA adapter/external eSATA cable to the external eSATA drive and that would work fine.  The adapter's internal SATA data plug was attached to the last motherboard SATA port, farthest towards the rear of the motherboard.  Then came the xw6600 which has an eSATA option in BIOS for specific ports.  Then the xw4600 with an independent eSATA port built in to the rear of the case.  Then the Z400/Z600/Z800 series, with ability to change from regular mode to eSATA mode, each at 2 different speeds, for the last two motherboard SATA ports.

These ZX00 workstations have a special capability I've not seen documented before..... hot swapping.  My workstations in this series all are version 2 ones, with the later boot block date you can read up on here in the forum, but I believe this will work with the earlier version 1 ones.  First I'll describe an external eSATA drive hooked up like back with the xw6400 which had no eSATA setting in BIOS.  In both cases below the same motherboard-to-backplane SATA to eSATA form factor adapter is used, and the same high quality external eSATA cable and eSATA drive are used.  A valuable tip:  For these external eSATA drives I always go to the properties of the drive and turn off the auto-indexing feature so the OS does not waste time indexing these big drives.  You get there via Computer, right click on the drive, drag down to Properties, and uncheck the box for "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed.....", and choose the larger option that comes up next.  Our eSATA drives are connected only for the image capture or clone process and I don't want/need the indexing feature to be running.

The default BIOS settings way:  In BIOS under the Storage heading inside the Storage Options option (where SATA Emulation should be set to RAID + AHCI) there is a listing of the 6 motherboard SATA ports.  The default for the last port is just like the other 5, and leave it that way for this experiment.  If your eSATA external drive is powered up and attached (via the adapter) to that last port then when you boot you will see it just like any other internal drive.  You won't see it as a removable drive.  You can read from it or add to it, but you should not hot plug it in or unplug it, or power it down just like you would not do that with an internal drive on a running computer.

The eSATA BIOS settings way:  In BIOS for that last port (and also the next to the last port) you can run through special options such as running that port at full SATA II speeds or dropping them to SATA I speeds, or running them at as eSATA at SATA II speeds,  or eSATA at SATA I speeds.  Set that last port to eSATA at the faster SATA II speed for this experiment, and that is what I keep that last (sixth) port set at all the time.  If you see some compatibility issues you might want to back off to the eSATA setting at the slower SATA I speed.

Here is where hot swapping comes in.  It turns out that if you use that special eSATA type of setting you can have the external eSATA drive turned off but with the eSATA cable attached and when you want to use the drive you just power it up, and you'll hear the chime as if a thumb drive had just been plugged in.  The drive becomes visible, usable, and you can also properly disconnect it from the OS using the normal taskbar icon you'd use to end use of a thumb drive.  You'll then hear the usual chime as if you were properly removing a thumb drive.  If your BIOS settings for this port are set back to its default rather than the eSATA option you won't have this removable drive capability, and the taskbar icon for removing a removable drive will not be visible.

As with a thumb drive you should always properly use the taskbar icon for disconnecting the drive from the OS before you physically disconnect it (or power it down).  The idea is that the OS needs to prepare to lose access to the drive, and perhaps finish some data transfer in the last moment.  This feature works for eSATA external drives that have a HDD or a SSD within.  I also have experimented with 3.5" and 5.25" form factor "receivers" mounted inside these workstations with external access to receive 2.5" or 3.5" drives mounted in their matching "carrier".  This allows me to plug in a removable drive to the receiver and it will automatically power up, mount in the OS, and chime that it is ready to go (pretty much instant).  I can later properly disconnect it on the OS level using the taskbar icon and then on the physical level to replace it with another drive (in its own carrier), and on.  This receiver/carrier approach may be most compatible because there is no external eSATA drive bridge involved..... just the SATA drive in the carrier with data carried back to that 6th port on the motherboard via an internal SATA cable, with that port set to eSATA mode (I'd set it to eSATA with SATA II speeds).

This may be of value to some.  I have not done these experiments with the Z620 or Z640 workstations yet but that would be easy to check.

[DGroves]

reguarding the hotswap feature on the zxx series (and the xw8600) which have a onboard LSI  SAS/SATA controller

the HP workstation models that have onboard SAS/SCSI raid controllers (or via a add in card) will also support hot swap on their ports and can be faster than the native SATA only ports. I have used a simple  external esata  bracket adapter that slots in any of the pci ports and connects to the onboard motherboard port using a short sata cable this setup worked with my mediasonic 7 bay esata enclosure and might work with other esata enclosures it will also work with any external SATA enclosure that just supports a single SATA device

some of the hp onboard SAS/SATA bio's  also cover setting timeouts/sleep/power on-off modes besides the normal raid options

so if you are needing or using  all of the  onboard SATA ports, don't forget to make use of the  LSI SAS/SATA ports if you need more onboard SATA drive ports or possibly a eSATA port