Frequently Asked Questions for FreeBSD 8.`X`, and 9.`X`
Prev | Chapter 4 Hardware Compatibility | Next

# 4.3 Hard Drives, Tape Drives, and CD and DVD Drives

4.3.1. What kind of hard drives does FreeBSD support?
4.3.2. Which SCSI or SAS controllers are supported?
4.3.3. What types of tape drives are supported?
4.3.4. Does FreeBSD support tape changers?
4.3.5. Which CD-ROM drives are supported by FreeBSD?
4.3.6. Which CD-RW drives are supported by FreeBSD?

4.3.1. What kind of hard drives does FreeBSD support?

FreeBSD supports EIDE, SATA, SCSI, and SAS drives (with a compatible controller; see the next section), and all drives using the original “Western Digital” interface (MFM, RLL, ESDI, and of course IDE). A few ESDI controllers that use proprietary interfaces may not work: stick to WD1002/3/6/7 interfaces and clones.

4.3.2. Which SCSI or SAS controllers are supported?

See the complete list in the Hardware Notes for FreeBSD 9.1 or 8.4.

4.3.3. What types of tape drives are supported?

FreeBSD supports SCSI and QIC-36 (with a QIC-02 interface). This includes 8-mm (aka Exabyte) and DAT drives.

Some of the early 8-mm drives are not quite compatible with SCSI-2, and may not work well with FreeBSD.

4.3.4. Does FreeBSD support tape changers?

FreeBSD supports SCSI changers using the ch(4) device and the chio(1) command. The details of how you actually control the changer can be found in the chio(1) manual page.

If you are not using AMANDA or some other product that already understands changers, remember that they only know how to move a tape from one point to another, so you need to keep track of which slot a tape is in, and which slot the tape currently in the drive needs to go back to.

4.3.5. Which CD-ROM drives are supported by FreeBSD?

Any SCSI drive connected to a supported controller is supported. Most ATAPI compatible IDE CD-ROMs are supported.

4.3.6. Which CD-RW drives are supported by FreeBSD?

FreeBSD supports any ATAPI-compatible IDE CD-R or CD-RW drive. See burncd(8) for details.

FreeBSD also supports any SCSI CD-R or CD-RW drives. Install and use `cdrecord` from the ports or packages system, and make sure that you have the `pass` device compiled in your kernel.

Prev | Home | Next
Architectures and Processors | Up | Keyboards and Mice