If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
Greetings all,
I have been reading around the internet, and trying to learn a few things regarding SATA and hot-swapping. This is what I want to do: I want to permanently mount one SATA drive in my computer (to be used as the boot and system drive). And then also, I want to use one of those fancy drive sleds to plug and unplug additional SATA drives (for data and backup use). I would like to simply reach over and yank out the removable drive any time I wish, and replace it with another drive. (Now, if I have to go to the system tray, and tap on dismount or something like that, so be it - I just want to know what I must do.) Now, in researching this, I come up will all manner of contradictory information - some people saying it can't be done without special software etc. etc. etc. But I am pretty sure that it can be done. I think the use of a controller that a supports SATA hot-swapping is mandatory. Yet I do not have a good understanding of this controller issue. - I wonder, could any SATA controller support hot-swapping if it had a proper driver? Or is there some hardware issue involved? I don't know. One thing I have discovered is that controllers are not well marketed insofar as hot-swapabilty is concerned. It is not clear whether a SATA controller specification that claims "support for hot-swapping" is referring to just a RAID or not. - By the way, I do not wish to run a RAID. I do not yet know if a controller that supports hot-swapped RAIDs is by implication also able to support single dive hot-swapping. Is there a distinction? I don't know. Oh, and you think that is bad? What about the motherboard based SATA controllers. Just try to find out if yours supports SATA hot-swapping or not. It's like pulling teeth trying to find out this information. Do all SATA drive sleds work with SATA II? If not, why not? What, for that matter, does a drive sled do? Why is it not just a convenient place to house a couple of connectors? Or is, in fact, that all there is to it? I mean, is it possible to not use a drive sled at all? Can one simply make the SATA cable and power cable accessible and then manually plug and un-plug SATA drives? I mean isn't that what the SATA hot-swap specification calls for? If not, what is the true definition of hot-plugging? Anyway, I want to hear from guys that are involved with the same thing. If you are hot-swapping SATA drives, please reply and let us (me and the Usenet community) know your story. What can you tell us about your experience? What do we need to know? Oh, and for the record, I am talking about Windows XP Pro. Thanks all, - Stan Shankman |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
So you want to be able to pull one SATA drive and push another one under
live Windows XP? Without any RAID? Without going to "safely remove hardware" or similar manual procedure? Without risking of data corruption? You must be dreaming. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
"Stan Shankman" wrote in message ... Greetings all, I have been reading around the internet, and trying to learn a few things regarding SATA and hot-swapping. This is what I want to do: I want to permanently mount one SATA drive in my computer (to be used as the boot and system drive). And then also, I want to use one of those fancy drive sleds to plug and unplug additional SATA drives (for data and backup use). I would like to simply reach over and yank out the removable drive any time I wish, and replace it with another drive. (Now, if I have to go to the system tray, and tap on dismount or something like that, so be it - I just want to know what I must do.) Now, in researching this, I come up will all manner of contradictory information - some people saying it can't be done without special software etc. etc. etc. But I am pretty sure that it can be done. I think the use of a controller that a supports SATA hot-swapping is mandatory. Yet I do not have a good understanding of this controller issue. - I wonder, could any SATA controller support hot-swapping if it had a proper driver? Or is there some hardware issue involved? I don't know. One thing I have discovered is that controllers are not well marketed insofar as hot-swapabilty is concerned. It is not clear whether a SATA controller specification that claims "support for hot-swapping" is referring to just a RAID or not. - By the way, I do not wish to run a RAID. I do not yet know if a controller that supports hot-swapped RAIDs is by implication also able to support single dive hot-swapping. Is there a distinction? I don't know. Oh, and you think that is bad? What about the motherboard based SATA controllers. Just try to find out if yours supports SATA hot-swapping or not. It's like pulling teeth trying to find out this information. Do all SATA drive sleds work with SATA II? If not, why not? What, for that matter, does a drive sled do? Why is it not just a convenient place to house a couple of connectors? Or is, in fact, that all there is to it? I mean, is it possible to not use a drive sled at all? Can one simply make the SATA cable and power cable accessible and then manually plug and un-plug SATA drives? I mean isn't that what the SATA hot-swap specification calls for? If not, what is the true definition of hot-plugging? Anyway, I want to hear from guys that are involved with the same thing. If you are hot-swapping SATA drives, please reply and let us (me and the Usenet community) know your story. What can you tell us about your experience? What do we need to know? Oh, and for the record, I am talking about Windows XP Pro. Thanks all, - Stan Shankman I assume your reference to "drive sleds" refers to mobile racks designed to house removable hard drives. Here's some general background information we've picked up over the past year or so concerning "hot swapping" SATA hard drives... Based on our contacts with the SATA-IO organization (http://www.sata-io.org), the lead organization developing specifications for the SATA-IO HDs, (the "IO" denoting "International Organization"), formerly called SATA-II (and apparently still known by that latter designation by most users), and a number of HD manufacturers, here's what we've been able to glean re this "hot-plugging" issue as it applies to SATA HDs... There are two basic requirements for SATA hard drives to be "hot-pluggable" (a/k/a "hot-swappable"), to wit... 1. The SATA HD must have this capability. The manufacturer must *specifically* indicate that the particular drive is hot-pluggable capable. BTW, both the earlier SATA HDs having a data transfer rate of 1.5 Gb/s and the latest SATA-IO HDs having a data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s can be hot-pluggable. According to the information we received from the SATA-IO organization, the user cannot assume that merely because the drive is designated SATA-IO (SATA-II) it is inherently hot-pluggable. It would seem that in theory this *should* be so presuming the drive meets SATA-IO specifications, but we were cautioned not to make this assumption and as indicated, contact the drive's manufacturer for verification. 2. The motherboard must support hot-plugging capability, i.e., its SATA controller must provide hot-plugging support. One other consideration... SATA native hot plug as defined by the specification requires the use of the 15-pin SATA power connector, *not* the 4-pin Molex power plug commonly used to connect IDE devices and frequently found on SATA HDs alongside the SATA power connector. Furthermore, the specification also calls for a requirement that the power signal cables be connected/disconnected *simultaneously* in order for native SATA hot plugging to be supported. (In our case, we accomplish this by mounting the external SATA HDs in the removable tray/caddy in mobile racks so a simple push or pull on the removable tray's handle simultaneously connects/disconnects both the power/signal cables.) I have to admit that every SATA-IO HD we've worked with for nearly a year now (WD, Hitachi, Samsung, and Seagate, all SATA-IO drives) has proven to be hot-pluggable. I would add that in many instances while experimenting with the hot-plugging capability of the afore-mentioned SATA drives while they were connected as external devices, we've connected/disconnected the drives without regard to any simultaneous connection or disconnection of the data & power connectors and we suffered no ill effects that we're aware of in terms of data loss/corruption or damage to the drives. At least none to date. Even in cases where the SATA HD received its power through the Molex plug we didn't run into any problems, but we really did not do extensive testing with that configuration. In nearly every case power was applied to the SATA HD though its 15-pin power connector. Anna |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
Stan Shankman wrote
I have been reading around the internet, and trying to learn a few things regarding SATA and hot-swapping. This is what I want to do: I want to permanently mount one SATA drive in my computer (to be used as the boot and system drive). And then also, I want to use one of those fancy drive sleds to plug and unplug additional SATA drives (for data and backup use). I would like to simply reach over and yank out the removable drive any time I wish, and replace it with another drive. That isnt a great idea, most obviously if the system is currently writing to the drive. (Now, if I have to go to the system tray, and tap on dismount or something like that, so be it - I just want to know what I must do.) Presumably you would also be happy to check that the drive isnt currently being used before you physically remove it, say with some sort of activity light etc. Now, in researching this, I come up will all manner of contradictory information - some people saying it can't be done without special software etc. etc. etc. Yes, its quite a mess currently. But I am pretty sure that it can be done. Yes it can. I think the use of a controller that a supports SATA hot-swapping is mandatory. Correct. Yet I do not have a good understanding of this controller issue. - I wonder, could any SATA controller support hot-swapping if it had a proper driver? Or is there some hardware issue involved? That isnt completely clear currently. I don't know. One thing I have discovered is that controllers are not well marketed insofar as hot-swapabilty is concerned. Yeah, but thats also true of the basic question about whether it supports non RAID configs too. It is not clear whether a SATA controller specification that claims "support for hot-swapping" is referring to just a RAID or not. Yep. By the way, I do not wish to run a RAID. I do not yet know if a controller that supports hot-swapped RAIDs is by implication also able to support single dive hot-swapping. Is there a distinction? Yes. I don't know. Oh, and you think that is bad? What about the motherboard based SATA controllers. Just try to find out if yours supports SATA hot-swapping or not. It's like pulling teeth trying to find out this information. True of whether its designed to support non RAID too, although thats becoming less true than it used to be. Do all SATA drive sleds work with SATA II? Nope. If not, why not? Some of them are very poor designs which dont even fully support SATA, essentially because they flout the SATA standard in some areas, essentially because they appear to be crude kludges of ATA drive 'sleds' Then there's the separate question of the power connector. Quite a few drives have a molex connector, the old ATA power connector, and that cannot be used for hot swapping. What, for that matter, does a drive sled do? Its mostly about the mechanical stuff, providing a decent solid way of sliding the drive in and out of the system. Why is it not just a convenient place to house a couple of connectors? Because there is more involved than just the connectors. The mechanical arrangement needs to be convenient, and many have some form of fan etc because those configs dont get much airflow over the drive. Or is, in fact, that all there is to it? Nope. I mean, is it possible to not use a drive sled at all? Can one simply make the SATA cable and power cable accessible and then manually plug and un-plug SATA drives? Nope, because the standard requires simultaneous insertion of two connectors if you're hot plugging. I mean isn't that what the SATA hot-swap specification calls for? Nope. If not, what is the true definition of hot-plugging? At that mechanical level, the simultaneous insertion and removal of two connectors. The short story is that you do need hot swap support in the drive, the controller. And in the OS if you want to be able to reef the 'sled' out regardless of what the OS is doing with the drive, so the OS can complete what its currently doing on the drive. Its probably viable to use a sled that has a clear indication of drive activity, so you dont actually pull it out when the OS is using the drive. Thats tricky tho because just because XP isnt currently using the drive doesnt mean that it wont try in the instant you have unplugged it. No big deal if its just doing a read as it does for various reasons, but not a good idea with a write. Probably best to concentrate on the sleds themselves and concentrate on the name brands like Kingwin and only use a sled thats advertised as supporting hot swapping. There are some systems that document that quite well with RAID, but not many at all that do that that with non RAID. What you are seeing is the classic downsides of operating on the bleeding edge of computing technology. Quite a bit of bleeding. Anyway, I want to hear from guys that are involved with the same thing. If you are hot-swapping SATA drives, please reply and let us (me and the Usenet community) know your story. What can you tell us about your experience? What do we need to know? Oh, and for the record, I am talking about Windows XP Pro. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
Peter wrote:
So you want to be able to pull one SATA drive and push another one under live Windows XP? Without any RAID? Without going to "safely remove hardware" or similar manual procedure? Without risking of data corruption? You must be dreaming. You can't just pull and plug, but if you first go to device manager and disable the drive you are removing and then enable the one you insert the process goes fine. -- --John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
So you want to be able to pull one SATA drive and push another one under
live Windows XP? Without any RAID? Without going to "safely remove hardware" or similar manual procedure? Without risking of data corruption? You must be dreaming. You can't just pull and plug, but if you first go to device manager and disable the drive you are removing and then enable the one you insert the process goes fine. That's my point. Can't pull a drive without first telling OS about your intentions. Unless you do not care about data integrity or have an intelligent RAID controller. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:52:43 -0400, "Peter"
wrote: So you want to be able to pull one SATA drive and push another one under live Windows XP? Without any RAID? Without going to "safely remove hardware" or similar manual procedure? Without risking of data corruption? You must be dreaming. You can't just pull and plug, but if you first go to device manager and disable the drive you are removing and then enable the one you insert the process goes fine. That's my point. Can't pull a drive without first telling OS about your intentions. Unless you do not care about data integrity or have an intelligent RAID controller. On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:06:53 -0700, "Stan Shankman" wrote: I would like to simply reach over and yank out the removable drive any time I wish, and replace it with another drive. (Now, if I have to go to the system tray, and tap on dismount or something like that, so be it - I just want to know what I must do.) |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
More Information on SATA Hot-Plugging and Hot-Swapping
______________________________________________ Anna, Thank you for the reply, and for the link to the SATA-IO organization. That was particularly helpful. I suspect that the SATA-IO standard offers a smorgasbord of features from which the various drive manufactures may choose when designing a new drive. And that being a flexible standard, not all features are required, and it is up to the individual drive manufactures to implement whichever features they desire. Of course I do suspect that there is a set of mandatory features from which the manufacturer may not vary - if there new drive is to be considered a true SATA drive. And so 'hot-plugabilty' may just be one of those elective features. So insofar as the SATA-IO organization is concerned, one must check with the drive manufacturer to be certain that the drive in question does, in fact, support 'hot-plugging'. But I further suspect that the implementation of 'hot-plugability' is so trivial from an engineering standpoint, and so impelling for other reasons (not the least of which would be warranty considerations), that no manufacturer has yet chosen to produce a drive that does not conform to this important feature. Also, insofar as the 4-pin Molex connector is concerned, I again suspect that this connector is equally capable of performing the hot-plug function. Hot-plugabiltiy is, after all, implemented at the *electrical circuit level* - i.e. those circuits within a device that all external electrical wiring eventually becomes interfaced to. And since the SATA organization is laying-out specifications for a new type of drive, it is of little wonder that they shun the use of non-SATA connectors. It may well be that mechanical aspects of the newer SATA power-connector have been designed to accommodate repeated connection-cycling, and that Molex connectors are considered to simply be a plug-once-and-forget kind of connector. Nonetheless, from a user standpoint, anyway one can break the connections to a hot-pluggable device must be expected to be safe if that device is indeed hot-pluggable. I also have dreamt-up my own idea as to how SATA hot-swap software should work: If one removes a SATA drive at a disadvantageous time, i.e. either a *read* or a *write* operation should be attempted (or is being attempted) on the missing drive, then the following recovery path should be initiated. A. -- WRITE FAILURE An alert screen should be presented to the user, indicating that: "File *such-and-such* could not be written to drive *such-and-such* due to the fact that the drive is offline. - What would you like to do?" - Three choices should be offered: 1: *CANCEL* the write operation. 2: Re-install the missing drive and hit *RETRY*. 3: *CACHE* the file on the system drive and await the arrive of the missing drive before finalizing the write operation. (Once the missing drive becomes available again, only then will the file [or files] be written onto the re-appeared disk.) This selection should be accompanied with a check-box: "In the future always do the same for files of size less than: (Here a user-selectable dropdown menu)." (Personally, I would check the box, and select a file size of around 10MB from this dropdown.) B. -- READ FAILURE "An alert screen should be presented to the user, indicating that: "File *such-and-such* could not be read from drive *such-and-such* due to the fact that the drive is offline. - What would you like to do?" - Two choices should be offered: 1 *CANCEL* the read operation. 2: Re-install the missing drive and hit *RETRY*. That's all there should be to it. Simple right? Now one can yank out a drive at any time without worry. And then there is one new idea I have to offer the standards committee; SATA drives should have a switch physically located on the drive itself used to mark the drive *READ ONLY*. If the operating system senses that a SATA drive is *Read Only* then all appropriate measures should be taken within the operating system to accommodate that fact. For instance, no attempt should be made to write a *Drive Signature* or *Thumbnails* or anything like that. Read-only drives are something from the past, and I think it's about time to bring them back. So anyway, enough of my "dreaming". And now, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to ask you a few questions. Would you please explain in more detail how you go about swapping out a disk? Do you use the Disk Management Console? Or what? What specifically do you do when you remove one drive and install another - and, for the record, are you talking about a RAID or not? Oh, and please specify which operating system you are using. Now I would like to point-out; that of all the replies I have received so far, no one has addressed the; "What makes a SATA controller hot-pluggable?" question. Is it just software? Or not? And then finally, would you please state how satisfied you are with hot-plugging. - Is it something you would defiantly recommend to others? Thank you a lot for taking the time to answer these questions. I appreciate it very much. And I remind you that many more people will find your reply on Usenet from the Google search engine. And I am sure that they too will thank you for your wonderful information! - Stan Shankman "Anna" wrote in message ... "Stan Shankman" wrote in message ... Greetings all, I have been reading around the internet, and trying to learn a few things regarding SATA and hot-swapping. This is what I want to do: I want to permanently mount one SATA drive in my computer (to be used as the boot and system drive). And then also, I want to use one of those fancy drive sleds to plug and unplug additional SATA drives (for data and backup use). I would like to simply reach over and yank out the removable drive any time I wish, and replace it with another drive. (Now, if I have to go to the system tray, and tap on dismount or something like that, so be it - I just want to know what I must do.) Now, in researching this, I come up will all manner of contradictory information - some people saying it can't be done without special software etc. etc. etc. But I am pretty sure that it can be done. I think the use of a controller that a supports SATA hot-swapping is mandatory. Yet I do not have a good understanding of this controller issue. - I wonder, could any SATA controller support hot-swapping if it had a proper driver? Or is there some hardware issue involved? I don't know. One thing I have discovered is that controllers are not well marketed insofar as hot-swapabilty is concerned. It is not clear whether a SATA controller specification that claims "support for hot-swapping" is referring to just a RAID or not. - By the way, I do not wish to run a RAID. I do not yet know if a controller that supports hot-swapped RAIDs is by implication also able to support single dive hot-swapping. Is there a distinction? I don't know. Oh, and you think that is bad? What about the motherboard based SATA controllers. Just try to find out if yours supports SATA hot-swapping or not. It's like pulling teeth trying to find out this information. Do all SATA drive sleds work with SATA II? If not, why not? What, for that matter, does a drive sled do? Why is it not just a convenient place to house a couple of connectors? Or is, in fact, that all there is to it? I mean, is it possible to not use a drive sled at all? Can one simply make the SATA cable and power cable accessible and then manually plug and un-plug SATA drives? I mean isn't that what the SATA hot-swap specification calls for? If not, what is the true definition of hot-plugging? Anyway, I want to hear from guys that are involved with the same thing. If you are hot-swapping SATA drives, please reply and let us (me and the Usenet community) know your story. What can you tell us about your experience? What do we need to know? Oh, and for the record, I am talking about Windows XP Pro. Thanks all, - Stan Shankman I assume your reference to "drive sleds" refers to mobile racks designed to house removable hard drives. Here's some general background information we've picked up over the past year or so concerning "hot swapping" SATA hard drives... Based on our contacts with the SATA-IO organization (http://www.sata-io.org), the lead organization developing specifications for the SATA-IO HDs, (the "IO" denoting "International Organization"), formerly called SATA-II (and apparently still known by that latter designation by most users), and a number of HD manufacturers, here's what we've been able to glean re this "hot-plugging" issue as it applies to SATA HDs... There are two basic requirements for SATA hard drives to be "hot-pluggable" (a/k/a "hot-swappable"), to wit... 1. The SATA HD must have this capability. The manufacturer must *specifically* indicate that the particular drive is hot-pluggable capable. BTW, both the earlier SATA HDs having a data transfer rate of 1.5 Gb/s and the latest SATA-IO HDs having a data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s can be hot-pluggable. According to the information we received from the SATA-IO organization, the user cannot assume that merely because the drive is designated SATA-IO (SATA-II) it is inherently hot-pluggable. It would seem that in theory this *should* be so presuming the drive meets SATA-IO specifications, but we were cautioned not to make this assumption and as indicated, contact the drive's manufacturer for verification. 2. The motherboard must support hot-plugging capability, i.e., its SATA controller must provide hot-plugging support. One other consideration... SATA native hot plug as defined by the specification requires the use of the 15-pin SATA power connector, *not* the 4-pin Molex power plug commonly used to connect IDE devices and frequently found on SATA HDs alongside the SATA power connector. Furthermore, the specification also calls for a requirement that the power signal cables be connected/disconnected *simultaneously* in order for native SATA hot plugging to be supported. (In our case, we accomplish this by mounting the external SATA HDs in the removable tray/caddy in mobile racks so a simple push or pull on the removable tray's handle simultaneously connects/disconnects both the power/signal cables.) I have to admit that every SATA-IO HD we've worked with for nearly a year now (WD, Hitachi, Samsung, and Seagate, all SATA-IO drives) has proven to be hot-pluggable. I would add that in many instances while experimenting with the hot-plugging capability of the afore-mentioned SATA drives while they were connected as external devices, we've connected/disconnected the drives without regard to any simultaneous connection or disconnection of the data & power connectors and we suffered no ill effects that we're aware of in terms of data loss/corruption or damage to the drives. At least none to date. Even in cases where the SATA HD received its power through the Molex plug we didn't run into any problems, but we really did not do extensive testing with that configuration. In nearly every case power was applied to the SATA HD though its 15-pin power connector. Anna |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
USB drives are hot-pluggable. Did you use one before? External USB hard
drives, USB memory sticks, etc. You know what happens when you insert it to live machine running hot-plug aware OS. You will get a series of notifications and additional applet which would facilitate safe removal of such a drive. Obviously there are many ways to implement it, but you still need to notify OS about your intention to remove drive. That could be applet dialog or a custom made script which you can invoke with a single click of a mouse. Hot-swap term I understand applies only to fault tolerant systems, where system detects failure, passes control to other/good component, notifies about failure. Then you swap failed component with a good one (without shutting down anyting), system detects it and readjusts subsystem settings. Hot-pluggability is a collaboration between hardware, firmware, drivers and OS. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking information on SATA hard drive hot-swapping . . .
(In response to Stan Shankman's query re "hot-plugging" SATA HDs)...
"Anna" wrote in message ... I assume your reference to "drive sleds" refers to mobile racks designed to house removable hard drives. Here's some general background information we've picked up over the past year or so concerning "hot swapping" SATA hard drives... Based on our contacts with the SATA-IO organization (http://www.sata-io.org), the lead organization developing specifications for the SATA-IO HDs, (the "IO" denoting "International Organization"), formerly called SATA-II (and apparently still known by that latter designation by most users), and a number of HD manufacturers, here's what we've been able to glean re this "hot-plugging" issue as it applies to SATA HDs... There are two basic requirements for SATA hard drives to be "hot-pluggable" (a/k/a "hot-swappable"), to wit... 1. The SATA HD must have this capability. The manufacturer must *specifically* indicate that the particular drive is hot-pluggable capable. BTW, both the earlier SATA HDs having a data transfer rate of 1.5 Gb/s and the latest SATA-IO HDs having a data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s can be hot-pluggable. According to the information we received from the SATA-IO organization, the user cannot assume that merely because the drive is designated SATA-IO (SATA-II) it is inherently hot-pluggable. It would seem that in theory this *should* be so presuming the drive meets SATA-IO specifications, but we were cautioned not to make this assumption and as indicated, contact the drive's manufacturer for verification. 2. The motherboard must support hot-plugging capability, i.e., its SATA controller must provide hot-plugging support. One other consideration... SATA native hot plug as defined by the specification requires the use of the 15-pin SATA power connector, *not* the 4-pin Molex power plug commonly used to connect IDE devices and frequently found on SATA HDs alongside the SATA power connector. Furthermore, the specification also calls for a requirement that the power signal cables be connected/disconnected *simultaneously* in order for native SATA hot plugging to be supported. (In our case, we accomplish this by mounting the external SATA HDs in the removable tray/caddy in mobile racks so a simple push or pull on the removable tray's handle simultaneously connects/disconnects both the power/signal cables.) I have to admit that every SATA-IO HD we've worked with for nearly a year now (WD, Hitachi, Samsung, and Seagate, all SATA-IO drives) has proven to be hot-pluggable. I would add that in many instances while experimenting with the hot-plugging capability of the afore-mentioned SATA drives while they were connected as external devices, we've connected/disconnected the drives without regard to any simultaneous connection or disconnection of the data & power connectors and we suffered no ill effects that we're aware of in terms of data loss/corruption or damage to the drives. At least none to date. Even in cases where the SATA HD received its power through the Molex plug we didn't run into any problems, but we really did not do extensive testing with that configuration. In nearly every case power was applied to the SATA HD though its 15-pin power connector. Anna "Stan Shankman" wrote in message ... More Information on SATA Hot-Plugging and Hot-Swapping Anna, (SNIP) So anyway, enough of my "dreaming". And now, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to ask you a few questions. Would you please explain in more detail how you go about swapping out a disk? Do you use the Disk Management Console? Or what? What specifically do you do when you remove one drive and install another - and, for the record, are you talking about a RAID or not? Oh, and please specify which operating system you are using. Now I would like to point-out; that of all the replies I have received so far, no one has addressed the; "What makes a SATA controller hot-pluggable?" question. Is it just software? Or not? And then finally, would you please state how satisfied you are with hot-plugging. - Is it something you would defiantly recommend to others? Thank you a lot for taking the time to answer these questions. I appreciate it very much. And I remind you that many more people will find your reply on Usenet from the Google search engine. And I am sure that they too will thank you for your wonderful information! - Stan Shankman Stan: As I previously indicated, we usually work with removable HDs - what I believe you were referring to as "drive sleds". This is still another advantage of these "mobile racks" in that the user can simultaneously connect & disconnect the power/signal cables from the SATA drives, thus meeting the specification for "hot-plugging" capability of SATA hard drives. The OS is XP in a non-RAID configuration. We haven't worked with SATA HDs to any degree with prior operating systems. There is no need to access Disk Management nor Device Manager (as I believe one or more responders to your query indicated). Presumably when one is invoking hot-plugging (hot-swapping), he or she is doing so with respect to a secondary SATA HD. Obviously if the boot drive is disconnected the system will go down and a reboot would be necessary. So, in the case of using removable HDs in their mobile racks, it's a simple matter to disconnect the secondary drive and substitute another in its place and the latter drive will be recognized by the system. As simple as that. While we're on this subject let me say a few words about a fairly recent development which impacts on this hot-plugging (hot-swapping) issue... A number of motherboards are now coming equipped with an eSATA ("e" for external) port on the motherboard's backplane. By connecting an ordinary SATA HD to this port (but note the eSATA port needs a special eSATA connector on the signal/data cable that will be connected to it - see below) you now have an *external* device that's treated as an *internal* device by the system. Think of the advantages of this. For the first time in an XP environment, you will be able to directly install the XP OS onto an "external" SATA drive, i.e., a drive that is physically located outside the computer's case, and that drive will be bootable. So that the user could *directly* install the XP OS onto that drive should he or she desire, or (possibly the more common scenario) be able to clone the contents of one's internal day-to-day working HD (PATA or SATA) - using a disk imaging program, e.g., Ghost, and the drive will be bootable - a capability that has eluded us with USB/Firewire external hard drives up to now. An enormous advantage, no? Another advantage of using an "external" SATA HD is its speed. It will operate substantially at the same speed as an internal SATA HD and thus be considerably faster than a USB/Firewire EHD. The eSATA port does allow for "hot-swapping" of connected devices assuming the device itself has no problem with this capability. Still another advantage of the eSATA port is that it supports the latest SATA 3 Gb/sec specification. Actually, you could connect a SATA HD to the eSATA port without the absolute necessity of containing that drive in any special enclosure. Theoretically you could plop it in a cigar box or even run the SATA data/signal cable directly to a bare drive. Not the most desirable thing to do for the average user, but it can be done. We generally set up our desktop computers with mobile racks (2) to contain our removable hard drives. It's a hardware arrangement that we strongly recommend for many desktop computer users. So we usually contain the "external" SATA drive in one of the removable trays that are also used in the mobile racks. And, as I previously indicated, this hardware arrangement lends itself to simultaneous connects/disconnects of the SATA HD to & from the system. Now, what about the power to that SATA "external" drive? You simply use the power from your computer's power supply. There's absolutely no need for an external power supply. So that's another advantage of this eSATA device, yes? It's a relatively simple matter for a user to run a power cable from their PS to the external SATA drive, but it does mean that you have to snake it out probably through one of the slots on the backplane of the computer's case. On the other hand, enclosures are now coming onto the market with direct SATA-to-SATA connection capability that have a built-in power supply. A number of these now come equipped with eSATA connectors as well. BTW, there's another device we came across that users may be interested in to connect an external SATA HD. It's called the SATAPOWPLAT1, manufactured or distributed by StarTech. Take a look at $7.99 http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...2&loc=101&sp=1 and $5.45 http://www.provantage.com/scripts/ca...tspecs/STRT0HA This device is simply attached to the I/O bracket on the computer case's backplane. It comes with two external connectors - the SATA data connector and the 15-pin SATA power connector. Internally (the other side of its slot plate) is, of course, the SATA data connector and the normal 4-pin Molex power plug. So it's a simple matter to connect the device to one of the power leads of one's PS. Given the significant advantages of an eSATA port connection I would guess that more & more motherboards will be equipped with this feature since it inherently has the substantial advantages of treating an "external" device (the SATA HD) as a normal internal device together with providing superior performance when compared with USB/Firewire external hard drives. Our experience to date with "hot-plugging" has been very positive, both with respect to using that feature with removable HDs and the eSATA feature as noted above. As I previously stated, over the past year or so we've worked with a fairly wide variety of SATA HDs and have experienced no problems involving data corruption nor any physical problems affecting the drives themselves. Anna |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Newbie: OC Advice: AMDXP2200 CPU | Donald Bock | Overclocking AMD Processors | 2 | March 12th 05 12:14 AM |
Network File Server | Bob | Storage (alternative) | 37 | May 4th 04 09:07 PM |
How do you make small pixel photos better on printout? | [email protected] | Printers | 24 | February 4th 04 07:28 PM |
Removable Drive Bays | Rod Speed | Storage (alternative) | 35 | January 3rd 04 08:31 PM |
PC generating unusual "chirrupy" sound? | Coda | General Hardware | 1 | November 20th 03 07:52 PM |