Will an Xserve3,1 boot without any drive bays?

[RealKGB]

I'm looking to acquire an Xserve3,1 locally but it comes without any drive bays. It does have the internal SSD though, so I can install to that - I'm just not sure if it will boot without a drive bay.
I did find drive bays separately, but they're $30 each and without a drive.

Similarly, if I put in any number of drive bays without an Apple official drive, would it still work?

Thank you!

 

[fuzzface]

Yes, the Xserve should boot fine with only the internal SSD installed. Get the right drive-trays for the 3,1 - the ones for the older Xserves tend to be problematic. There is a matrix with the part numbers and which tray works in which Xserve somewhere in the net.
And yes, the Xserve is also picky about the drives.

The trays I got with my Xserve3,1 are the 620-4575 SAS trays. They work fine with ordinary 2TB Hitachi HUA722020ALA330 SATA-drives, which i got cheap off eBay.

Cheers,

fuzzface

 

[RealKGB]

Perfect thank you!

 

[RealKGB]

Yes, the Xserve should boot fine with only the internal SSD installed. Get the right drive-trays for the 3,1 - the ones for the older Xserves tend to be problematic. There is a matrix with the part numbers and which tray works in which Xserve somewhere in the net.
And yes, the Xserve is also picky about the drives.

The trays I got with my Xserve3,1 are the 620-4575 SAS trays. They work fine with ordinary 2TB Hitachi HUA722020ALA330 SATA-drives, which i got cheap off eBay.

Cheers,

fuzzface

Perfect thank you! Do you know if they work with WD drives? I have a 1TB WD drive that I've been using as a standalone network share - if I could just put that in that'd be awesome...

 

[fuzzface]

Not sure about your WD-drive. Some Xserve3,1s came with WD-drives, 160GB WD 1602WBS for instance.
Guess, you'll have to try it once you get a proper drive tray. If the Xserve doesn't detect your drive, you're most probably out of luck. I once tried a 1TB WD 1002FBYS - no luck, and it even was an Apple-shipped drive.