CRU RAX420-XJ - Manual (Page 4)

RTX220 QR - Manual
2.3 Connecting and Powering RAX
Connect the SFF-8088 data cable to the RAX and your host computer.
Plug in the power cord. With hard drives in the unit, turn on the
power.
For the RAX420-XJ, the drives will begin to spin up automatically.
For the RAX421-XJ, use the included set of keys to turn the key lock
90 degrees clockwise to power on each hard drive.
For the RAX425-XJ, push in the power buttons on each frame until
the LED lights up to power on each hard drive.
Your RAX is now ready to use! If the hard drives are already format-
ted, the RAX can be used right away. If the hard drives are brand
new, or the formats are not compatible with your computer, the drives
will need to be formatted before being used. See section 4, “Us-
age with Mac and Windows Operating Systems” for information on
formatting.
3. Dual Port Configurations
The RAX421D-XJ and RAX425D-XJ support two host
machines connected via two multi-lane SAS/SATA (SFF-
8088) connections. Both hosts on a dual port configura-
tion cannot simultaneously write to the RAX unit. A dual
port configuration only ensures redundancy in case one
host machine is disabled or goes down.
4. Usage with Mac and Windows Operating Systems
4.1 Usage with Mac OS X
4.1.1 Compatibility
RAX uses 3.5-inch SATA (Serial-ATA) hard drives only. RAX does not
require drivers for operation under Mac OS X. However, if you install a
host card specifically to work with this product, that card may require
drivers. See your card’s User Manual for drivers and instructions.
4.1.2 Formatting a Drive
If you purchased your RAX pre-populated with hard drives, this
step should not be necessary unless you wish to change the format
or erase the drive. To format, use Mac OS X’s Disk Utility (found in
the applications folder).
a. Click on the drive in the window to the left (see following image).
b. Click the Erase tab in the window to the right (see following
image).
c. Select the format type. Most users prefer Mac OS Extended
with Journaling (HFS+), which is required for compatibility
with Time Machine (OS 10.5 or newer). If you need to use your
RAX with both Mac and Windows computers, select MS-DOS
File System instead.
d. Enter a name for the new volume and then click “Erase” to
start the process.
4.1.3 Mounting and Unmounting Volumes
If the hard drives installed in RAX are already formatted, an icon
representing the drive’s volume will appear (mount) on the desktop.
You can begin using the volume right away. If the drive is unformat-
ted, a message will appear on the desktop saying that the disk is
unreadable. You can use OS X’s Disk Utility to easily format the drive
(see section above).
Unmount the volume before powering
down the unit by dragging the volume’s
icon to the trash bin, or by selecting
the volume then pressing Command-
E. Disconnecting the unit without first
unmounting the volume can result in
data loss.
4.1.4 Creating a Boot Drive
To activate this feature, you must first install OS X on the hard
drive in your carrier. The easiest way to do this is to clone an
existing system drive using a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner or
Super Duper. Next, go to System Preferences --> Startup Disk. A
window will list the available bootable volumes. Select the volume
from which you wish to boot. Another method is to hold down the
Option key during boot up. A screen should appear that allows you
to select the volume you wish to use. This is useful if you wish to
boot from your RAX hard drive only some of the time.
4.2 Usage with Windows Operating Systems
4.2.1 Compatibility
RAX-XJ uses 3.5-inch SATA (Serial-ATA) hard drives only. RAX
does not require drivers for operation under Windows XP, Vista,
or 7. However, if you install a host card specifically to work with
this product, that card may require drivers. See your card’s User
Manual for drivers and instructions.
Page 3