All hard drives are connected to the system board through the hard drive backplane. Hard drives are 
supplied in hot-swappable hard drive carriers that fit in the hard drive slots.
When you format a hard drive, allow enough time for the formatting to be complete. Be aware that high-
capacity hard drives can take a long time to format.
Removing the hard drive cage
Prerequisites
CAUTION: Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician. You should only 
perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation, or as 
directed by the online or telephone service and support team. Damage due to servicing that is 
not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty. Read and follow the safety instructions 
that came with the product.
1. Ensure that you follow the Safety instructions.
2. Follow the procedure listed in Before working inside your system.
3. Disconnect all peripherals connected to the control panel assembly.
4. Remove the bezel.
5. If connected, disconnect the power and data cables from the hard drives and the optical drive in the 
hard drive cage.
Steps
Slide and hold the hard drive cage latch and pull the hard drive cage out of the system.
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