Similar to a fan, what about a switch for hard drives?

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Done some searching, didn't find it... I'd like to make a front panel switch to turn on / off a hard drive. Yes, this would only be done with the power off...

I'm running RAID off of a pair of 45's, and have my old 15 with ghost images on it and other occasional registry backups. Normally I have the power cable yanked from it, so that I can't accidentally screw it up. (LIke fdisk the wrong drive like I've done once before!) But it's a chore to open and close the case, due to it's current location. I'd like to just switch it on or off with a control in the front of the case just like those for the fans.

For a fan, you just switch the 12V supply to it, pretty simple. For the HDD, is it using all of the wires (12V, Gnd, Gnd, 5V), or just some of them? Which one, if I could only choose one, would I break the connection on?

 

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(Sorry just turning on the reply feature)

 

[BA]

The simple way to do it is just to get a removable rack. All the ones I've got have a keyed power switch on them.

If you want to use your own switch, you can either cut both hot(12V&5V) or both ground lines. Given a choice, I'd do the 12 & 5.

 

[XMan]

Tiger Electronics has a three-button deal that lets you select which hard drive you want active so as to boot from it. That might work, no?

 

[pbrain]

i made a universal on/off switch w/ indicator led's, and currently have my internal usb hub hooked up to it, although i could plug anything (or multiple things) to it. what i did was use a dpdt switch that turned the 12v and 5v on or off. if you aren't going to use indicator led's, then i would suggest using to switch to turn the grounds on or off, as it's usually better to cut off power from the negative source, although it usually doesn't matter. and if you do it that way, then you could probably use a spst switch and have both grounds running through the switch together.

 

[tracerbullet]

Well, a ground wire being a ground wire, all of them eventually at the same potential, that should work right? Why in the heck don't the plugs come with three wires to begin with? red, black, yellow - as opposed to red, black, black, yellow?

I've got three CDROMS plugged in (DVD, CDR, and "plain" CD with a fast audio rip) and thus no more spots in the front of my Antec 840, so this switch will just get a hole cut into the front panel for it.

I'll check out Tiger and see what they've got, or maybe just go with the dpdt and invent my own.

Basically it looks like both the 12 and 5V's are important then as opposed to just one? I guess it's easy enough to just kill both, looks like that's what I'll do.

Thanks!

 

[Galileo]

I used a DPDT rocker switch from radio shack, cat#275-695.It's a large switch, almost 1"x1", black frame w/ red rocker. Very imposing.

After finding the spot where I'd put the switch, I got me some scrap male and female molex connectors. The male molex will connect to one of the psu molex for power and ground. The female will connect to the drive. It's an independent unit this way and I can toss it without rewiring anything. I used a 22gauge wire to connect the switch and molexs. I also made the wire connections long enough so the wires can tuck out of the way and look neat. I also soldered then wrapped with electrical tape.


1) Connect the red 5v wire from the male molex to one of the center terminals of the switch.
2) Connect one of the outside prongs of that terminal to the red wire of the female molex.
3) connect the 5v ground of the female molex to the 5v ground of the male molex.

Do the same thing for the 12v using the other terminal of the switch.
If I remember, the I/O markings on the switch goes with the opposite prong underneath and not the one directly beneath it.

I don't have any electronics background and caveat emptor or something something apply. Any comments welcomed.