Hi Everyone - I just started adding disk drives to my GW 6400 and started looking for rails - same as everyone else! I saw this thread and remembered that someone had done a do-it-yourself guide for making rails. After an hour of searching my old emails, I found it. For the life of me, I cannot find the name of the guy who originally posted this - so I am not blatantly ripping it off and trying to pass it off as mine - no flames, please!
Also I found another thread that mentioned that the rails were the same as HP Vectra/Kayak rails - and I found someone who sells them, but they don't look like the "real ones". Whether they work or not, I might willing to gamble $7.50 for a set of each - they won't lock - but they looked like they could fit the slot...
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HP Vectra/Kayak rails:
http://www.thetrayman.net/item74903.ctlg
$7.50 each
http://www.thetrayman.net/item74902.ctlg
$7.50 each
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Thanks to the original poster - whoever he was! American ingenuity at its best!
Here's the post - with some spelling corrections :
Saturday, July 07, 2001 2:10 PM
Mods, I know this isn't exactly a hot deal, but it does
pertain to the huge gateway deal that everyone got in on -- pls don't
lock it up.
Well, yesterday night (friday) I give gateway a call to
order those plastic drive rails. So I get directed to "Business Addons
Dept.". They had gone home for the weekend and nobody else wanted to
talk to me about it. So, I'm mad -- I got this whole weekend set aside
to setup my 6400 and its bust. So I call my local gateway stores
and they don't have them (actually, they don't have stock of anything). So
I read that you can use HP Vectra/Kayak drive rails so I call up
everyone I know and all those pesky compusa style stores. No luck. So I
tell myself: these things are so cheap, I bet you could make them
out of cardboard. I knew the only problem would be finding a piece thick
enough. As luck would have it, the flaps on the top of the 6400
server box are just the same thickness as the rails (and they have some
good tape to hold shape well). I've got it down to a pretty easy
method now:
1) get those purple guides off the side of the lower
5.25 inch bay. this will also work with the ones on the scsi drive, but
the purple ones are better because they are flatter.
2) keep the white side of the cardboard facing up and
place one of the drive rails on top. push down on the metal piece on the
drive rail until you can see slight indents in the surface. place the
drive rail down and grab a knife (x-actos are always good and sharp, but
any steak knife will do), use it to punch two holes into the cardboard
where the indents are (it should go all the way through). turn the
cardboard over and make sure the hole on the other side is well defined.
3) place the drive rail back on the white side of the
cardboard and push the metal piece into the holes such that the rail
stays connected to the cardboard. take your knife and cut a guide into the
cardboard as you go around the drive rail. this should just cut the
surface but wont go all the way through to the bottom. remove the drive
rail and cut the cardboard out with a pair of scissors -- cut into your
guide, this will keep the scissors aligned.
4) get a jumbo paper clip and straighten it out. now,
bend one end and stick it into one hole you made in the cardboard. bend
the other end so that it fits into the other hole you made in the
cardboard. then use a pair of wire cutters (sometimes scissors or just
bending back and forth will work) to cut the pieces of the paper clip
sticking out of the bottom of the cardboard such that they are around 1
cm (just make sure they are at least as long as those of the original
purple guide).
5) If you used the left drive rail to make the first
one, use the right drive rail to make your second one (or vice-versa).
Just repeat the steps above to finish of a pair.
I didn't need the purple drive rails for a 5.25 inch
drive, so I used them for a hard drive. They don't lock the same way as
the ones made for the hard drive, but the drives don't move at all after
you slide it in (and of course its blocked by the door of the computer).
So, I only needed to make 2 pairs of cardboard rails (I needed rails for
3 more drives). I hope this is clearly written and helpful, but if you
have any questions post them here or pm me.
I'm planning on trying this - anyone else who does this, please post the results, improvements, etc.
Also, if anyone tries out the HP Vectra/Kayak rails, please report on that.