IBM 300GB 10K RPM SAS SFF-1 Enterprise Hard Drive

Model: ST930003SS | IBM PNs: 42R6833, 42R6832 | Feature Code: 1884 | 300GB Capacity | 10K RPM

The IBM 42R6833 is a specialized SFF-1 (Small Form Factor) SAS drive specifically formatted and tiered for IBM Power Systems running AIX, Linux, or IBM i (AS/400). Unlike standard enterprise drives, this unit is often formatted with 522-byte sectors (standard for IBM Power environments) to accommodate extra metadata for data integrity and protection. It is a critical component for legacy Power6 and Power7 server configurations requiring high-speed local disk storage in a 2.5-inch footprint.

📊 Technical Specifications

• Capacity: 💾 300 GB

• Interface: ⚡ SAS 3Gb/s (Dual Port)

• Spindle Speed: 🏎️ 10,000 RPM

• Cache: 🧠 16 MB

• Form Factor: 📏 2.5-inch SFF-1 (Standard 15mm)

• Sector Format: 💾 522-byte (Standard for AIX/IBM i)

• MTBF: 🛡️ 1.6 Million Hours

• Recording Technology: 🖋️ CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording)

✅ Product Overview

• Power Systems Optimized: This drive is designed specifically for IBM Power6 and Power7 expansion units and server backplanes. It includes specialized IBM microcode to ensure seamless integration with the Power RAID adapters.

• Data Integrity (522-byte Sectors): Pre-formatted for IBM environments that use 8 extra bytes per sector for CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) and logical block guarding, which is essential for the "Self-Healing" capabilities of IBM i and AIX filesystems.

• SFF-1 Mechanical Design: Built on the reliable Seagate Savvio 10K.3 platform, this drive offers a balanced profile of energy efficiency and high-density performance for transaction-heavy server roles.

• Dual-Port Redundancy: Features a dual-port SAS interface to support multipath I/O, ensuring that data remains accessible even in the event of a controller or cable failure within the Power System enclosure.

📦 Compatibility & Use Case

• Target Systems: Optimized for IBM Power Systems (e.g., Power 520, 550, 720, 740) and expansion drawers like the 7214-1U2 or 5802/5803 12X I/O drawers.

• Ideal Workloads: Mission-critical AIX/Linux partitions, IBM i database hosting, and high-performance system boot volumes for PowerVM environments.

⚠️ Format Warning: Because this drive is formatted for AIX/IBM i (522-byte sectors), it will not be recognized by standard Windows, Linux (on x86), or Dell/HP servers without a low-level reformat to 512-byte sectors. This drive is intended as a direct replacement for existing IBM Power Systems storage arrays.