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Has anyone thought of this? Laptop HD removable docking bay

SUOrangeman

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member

I'm sure a few of you have seen removable HD 5.25" bays. Has anyone taken this concept to accomodate smaller laptop HDs? This things keep getting smaller and smaller while their capacities grow. Using a laptop HD (hey, the technology and standards exist) could provide excellent backup/sneakernet solution.

-SUO, thinking out loud
 
Hmm...I don't know if this exists yet or not, but hot swapable CDROMs and, HDs, and floppies would be even better 🙂

I believe there are PC Card HD's however, so I think that part already exists...
 
Yeah, I just thought that something like this would have been easier to implement. After all, laptop HDs, and 2.5-to-3.5" IDE connectors already exist. Throw in a little bit of engineering for the casing and voila!

-SUO
 
Oooh..ooooh...I may have the solution. Something like this has been mentioned on the www.winbook.com forum. It seems like they mentioned it in passing. I'll try to check, but I remember one member seemed to do just that...I can't remember what he called it.
--Randy
 
use a hot swappable case, and a 2.5 to 3.5 adaptor, and there you go. or is it more complicated, or are you thinking hot swapable in the laptop? or are you thinkg for the 3.5 bay a tray. . . . hmm
 
Yes these exist, you can find them in shops in Hong Kong...

It's basically a case with a connector adaptor, you plug the bay into the 3.5" slot and then you put the HDD in this plastic case that connects to the bay. It works exactly like an IDE drive.
 
linky, linky!

I was thinking about this for desktop systems, just with laptop HDs because of their size. How much are laptop HDs these days?

-SUO
 
My Gateway Solo 9300cx has a swappable bay that normally houses the floppy drive, or LS-120 drive, but it will also take a second HDD or a second battery.

It is not, however, hot swappable. I have a 20 GB IBM Travelstar in that #2 swappable bay at the moment. It will boot from it as well as from the primary . . . a BIOS call.
 
There is a place in US which sells those adapters, but I can't seem to remember link (never needed one, hehe). I have one of those adapters at work and it is pretty neat 😛
 
You guys keep getting closer. Imagine taking one of those laptop HD converters linked above and connecting them to a drive day that would allow you to treat the HD as a removable one. I'm talking plastic molding, maybe a little door flap; the whole nine.

But, please realize that I'm just thinking out loud anyway.

-SUO, million dollar idea in the making?
 
Great Idea!
I did this on my PC by using a PCMCIA Card reader and a FireWire2Go PCMCIA Card. Needless to say the Hard drive is a Maxtor Firewire drive, but besides the hot-swap-ability, I can connect my PCMCIA CDRW / Ethernet / Modem as and when I please without opening my case. You can find PCMCIA card reader anywhere and use that as your interface if you are designing something like this. It may cost a bit more but will be a lot more efficient/flexible.
 
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