Hot Swapable Drive Enclosures?

[mrlayance]

I just have a IDE interface? Is there such a thing?

 

[RalfHutter]

Some vendors claim to sell "hot-swapable" IDE enclosures but people who seem knowledgable about this type of thing say there is no such thing as hot-swapable IDE so Caveat Emptor!

 

[JamesM3M5]

Look into putting a Firewire card in your PC. Like this one for $15 or this one for $25 at newegg.com. Check out prices on Firewire external HDs, starting at about $110 for 30 or 40GB. Check Pricewatch and search under Hard Drives. Click here for and example at Esystore

Edit: Forgot to mention that you will need Win98 (SE preferred), ME, 2000, or XP. If you have Win95, you're stuck.

Good Luck!

 

[mrlayance]

Cool, I will check it out

 

[corkyg]

As long as the connection is Firewire or USB, it is hot-swappable. I've got a couple of them. They are great for data - a powerful sneaker net.

 

[madthumbs]

There are hot swappable drives, they use a key system to turn the power off before disconnecting/ connecting, but I would rather have a usb2 kit as it's more compatible with other machines.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: madthumbs
There are hot swappable drives, they use a key system to turn the power off before disconnecting/ connecting, but I would rather have a usb2 kit as it's more compatible with other machines.

Do you have links to any? I've been looking for hot-swapable IDE enclosures for years but anything I find turns out to be vaporware.

 

[corkyg]

I have 4 of those key-switched HDDs in mobile racks - they are NOT hot swappable as long as they connect to a IDE controller.

 

[BatmanNate]

I have some in my server. I believe the hot swap support must be present on the device's controller in addition to the drive bays, however. For instance, my Promise SuperTrak SX6000 supports hot swapping with my bays under 9x, but not under 2000/XP.