SATA hot swap w/ DP696LT board?

I'm trying to determine what's needed to safely hot-swap SATA drives that I use
for file back-ups. But it's unclear if my DP965LT motherboard supports SATA
hot-swapping.

Intel's website cautions that one needs to install AHCI or RAID drivers during
the OS install (XP-Pro) as AHCI (which supports hot swapping) cannot be selected
later. At least that's what this document seems to say:

http://support.intel.com/support/chi.../cs-015988.htm

Intel describes AHCI in this next document and states that the "ICH8, ICH7 and
ICH6-based chipsets, as well as ICH5 and ICH5R-based chipsets, do not use AHCI."
http://support.intel.com/support/chi.../CS-012304.htm

The SATA controller in the DP965LT is an "Intel® 82801HB I/O Controller Hub
(ICH8)". I think this all means that I would need an '3d party' add-on SATA card
if I want to hot-swap SATA drives. Right?

I'm building a new system around a DP35DP board which uses an "Intel 82801IR I/O
Controller Hub (ICH9R)". I assume that AHCI is supported on this board if I
install trhe proper AHCI (or RAID) driver when I install the OS?

Does this all sound correct?

Thanks to anyone out there who knows :-)

Thanks

Russell

Hot plug means various things. Electrically, hot plug is "safe" with any SATA port.

For hot-plug notification to the OS, you need AHCI or proprietary extentions.
Even if you don't have either (like the ICH8),
you can disable the SATA port in Device Manager before unplugging.

You can install the Intel ICHx drivers during or after the OS install.

"Russell" wrote in message ...
I'm trying to determine what's needed to safely hot-swap SATA drives that I use
for file back-ups. But it's unclear if my DP965LT motherboard supports SATA
hot-swapping.

Intel's website cautions that one needs to install AHCI or RAID drivers during
the OS install (XP-Pro) as AHCI (which supports hot swapping) cannot be selected
later. At least that's what this document seems to say:

http://support.intel.com/support/chi.../cs-015988.htm

Intel describes AHCI in this next document and states that the "ICH8, ICH7 and
ICH6-based chipsets, as well as ICH5 and ICH5R-based chipsets, do not use AHCI."
http://support.intel.com/support/chi.../CS-012304.htm

The SATA controller in the DP965LT is an "Intel® 82801HB I/O Controller Hub
(ICH8)". I think this all means that I would need an '3d party' add-on SATA card
if I want to hot-swap SATA drives. Right?

I'm building a new system around a DP35DP board which uses an "Intel 82801IR I/O
Controller Hub (ICH9R)". I assume that AHCI is supported on this board if I
install trhe proper AHCI (or RAID) driver when I install the OS?

On Sun, 5 Aug 2007 20:08:15 -0700, "Eric Gisin" wrote:

Hot plug means various things. Electrically, hot plug is "safe" with any SATA port.

For hot-plug notification to the OS, you need AHCI or proprietary extentions.
Even if you don't have either (like the ICH8),
you can disable the SATA port in Device Manager before unplugging.

Hi Eric.

That's interesting. I had not thought of that. This all began when I tired to
use a Vantec SATA mobile drive rack with an intel D875P board which uses an
ICH5R controller. While testing I tried connecting and diconneting a SATA drive
and found that when I opened and saved an Excel file on the drive it got
corrupted. Perhaps I had Write Caching enabled? Whatever it was, I lost
confidence in using it. When searching for 'why' I came across all the web
chatter AHCI and chipsets that support it and the claims that without AHCI
you could not safely pull a drive and replace it with another (without a
reboot).

When you say "disable the SATA port in Device Manager" what do you mean
exactly? I see the drive under "Disk Drives". Do you mean disable that? Or
disable one of the Intel(R)ICH8 Family PCI Express Root Ports (1, 2,3,4, or 5).

Thanks for the help.

Russell