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Mobile Hard Drive Rack

L

LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
these just crossed my mind, but then i realized i knew nothing about it, what exactly do these mobile hard drive racks allow me to do? does it allow me to move my hard drive to other people's computers? but then wouldn't they need to have the exact same rack?
what are some of the capabilities of something like Lian-Li RH-48B?
what are the pros and cons of mobile racks?
 
I had several of these (IDE versions with the fan), although they were a different brand. They were useful to a point, but I'm removing all of them from my computers. The fans got insanely loud in my wife's, not to mention the weird power thing going on with it. If you want hot swap, I'd suggest a 5-in-3 rack. If you want portability, go with an external drive, preferrably both USB 2.0 & firewire.

EDIT: Yes, to use in other computers, you have to have the exact same rack. You can also buy more inner trays, and have hard drives installed on them, so that you can swap hard drives easier. Keep in mind though, that hot-swapping is impossible with IDE drives connected to the mobo, as they have to be initialized in the BIOS to work. Hot swapping is possible with SATA drive, however.
 
yea if i do get one it'll be for SATA. for example if i had one of those sata racks and my friend didn't but i wanted to transfer some media files to his PC, can't i just pull mine out, shut down his pc, connect it to his SATA port on his MB and turn on his pc and copy and paste the files?

i considered USB, but then again, i move my pc a lot back and fourth from college so i'd rather not carry more external hdd's than i already have (1). and i'm also out of hard drive space in my PC and i find these racks more useful than a similarly priced HDD cooler in the 5.25 bay
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
yea if i do get one it'll be for SATA. for example if i had one of those sata racks and my friend didn't but i wanted to transfer some media files to his PC, can't i just pull mine out, shut down his pc, connect it to his SATA port on his MB and turn on his pc and copy and paste the files?

i considered USB, but then again, i move my pc a lot back and fourth from college so i'd rather not carry more external hdd's than i already have (1). and i'm also out of hard drive space in my PC and i find these racks more useful than a similarly priced HDD cooler in the 5.25 bay
Click to expand...

Yes, you could just connect the hd to his mobo. Or you could get him to buy one outer tray as well, and then you just swap hds. If you are just looking into sharing files with one computer, try looking into some VPN software. A friend of mine uses some VPN software that is really incredible--if you are interested, PM me, and I'll find out what he is using.
 
great, i'm actually on my way out right now but i'll try to get around to PM'ing you sometime tonight.
on another note i still need a physical slot to store the HDD inside of my case since i'm out of internal 3.5 slots... what would you do in my situation?
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
great, i'm actually on my way out right now but i'll try to get around to PM'ing you sometime tonight.
on another note i still need a physical slot to store the HDD inside of my case since i'm out of internal 3.5 slots... what would you do in my situation?
Click to expand...

How many hds are you looking to eventually install, and how many 5.25" bays do you have free? I have two Supermicro 5-in-3 SATA enclosures, and they are probably one of the best purchases I've made thus far. It takes up 3 bays, has space for 5, and it's amazingly convenient. If you don't need than many, or you need just one, I used several Zalman hd coolers in the past, and they were great. I myself would never use the hot-swap things like you posted in your OP again, personally.
 
I have used mobile racks for years. Unless SATA, they can't be hot swapped. But, they have been ideal for quick and easy drive cloning - i.e., creating a duplicate, immediately bootable drive in a few minutes. Then turned off and switched off. Get a virus or a drive failure? Simply power down, switch drives and reboot. Problem gone. Then reclone to make the bad drive good.

Been doing that for almost 8 years now.
 
All of my recent new clients are using hot-swap SATA trays from http://granitedigital.com for their ongoing backups. You may need to add a PCI/PCI-E hot-swap-certified SATA controller. With Seagate 320GB SATA drives inside, these have been quiet and trouble-free so far. I use the ones with built-in horizonal fans and temperature and fan RPM displays.

Trays weren't so great for backups when limited to IDE (since you had to shut down to swap them), but with SATA and hot-swap, they've become really useful.
 
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