booting from an external drive
Holt
If the external hard drive is connected to the PC via FireWire or USB2, then
the booting in the above manner may be impossible. However, if the external
hard drive is connected to the PC via SCSI, then the booting in the above
manner may be possible. Is anyone familiar with this matter?
FML
If your BIOS supports it, you can boot from an external USB drive.
Obviously it will be slower but it will work.
Holt
>>
>> If the external hard drive is connected to the PC via FireWire or USB2,
then
>> the booting in the above manner may be impossible. However, if the
external
>> hard drive is connected to the PC via SCSI, then the booting in the above
>> manner may be possible. Is anyone familiar with this matter?
> If your BIOS supports it, you can boot from an external USB drive.
Thank you for your reply, FML.
Can you name any specific PC (brand and model) whose BIOS supports it?
bxf
It has been pointed out several times in the past that just because
your BIOS supports this, does not mean that Windows does. We are told
that Windows cannot exist on an external device, so the ability to set
your BIOS to boot from such a device will not buy you anything.
---
No question is difficult if you know the answer.
Rock
No, windows XP will not boot from an external drive.
--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
Bob I
to the IDE or SCSI then you are not "external" as far as the Operating
system is concerned. XP will NOT RUN from what it sees as a "removable
drive" which is the "external" drive you seem to be referring to.
Likewise "a removable drive" in an IDE caddy is not a "removable drive"
as far as the operating system is concerned. I hope this clears this up
for you.
FML
Holt. I should apologize for my first answer. WinXP can be booted from
an external USB device but it is a bit of a science project. The first
thing that must be in place is your BIOS' ability to boot from USB. Then
you have to prepare your drive. Below is a good read on the process to
boot from a USB Thumb Drive:
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050909/usb-stick-windows-01.html
Holt
>> Can Windows XP on an external hard drive
>> boot a PC?
>>
>> If the external hard drive is connected to
>> the PC via FireWire or USB2, then the
>> booting in the above manner may be
>> impossible. However, if the external hard
>> drive is connected to the PC via SCSI, then
>> the booting in the above manner may be
>> possible. Is anyone familiar with this
>> matter?
FML wrote:
> WinXP can be booted from an external
> USB device but it is a bit of a science
> project. The first thing that must be
> in place is your BIOS' ability to boot
> from USB. Then you have to prepare your
> drive. Below is a good read on the
> process to boot from a USB Thumb Drive:
>
> http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050909/usb-stick-windows-01.html
Wow, the above article looks great. Thanks a lot, FML. I am still reading
the above article, though. The point seems to be BartPE. BartPE is not a
full Windows XP environment, is it not? Nevertheless, I hope BartPE will
accomplish many of the things I wanted to do. Thanks again, FML.
Holt
>> Can Windows XP on an external hard drive
>> boot a PC?
>>
>> If the external hard drive is connected to
>> the PC via FireWire or USB2, then the
>> booting in the above manner may be
>> impossible. However, if the external hard
>> drive is connected to the PC via SCSI, then
>> the booting in the above manner may be
>> possible. Is anyone familiar with this
>> matter?
Bob I wrote:
> The term "external" is misleading. If the
> drive is outside but connected to the IDE or
> SCSI then you are not "external" as far as
> the Operating system is concerned. XP will
> NOT RUN from what it sees as a "removable
> drive" which is the "external" drive you
> seem to be referring to. Likewise "a
> removable drive" in an IDE caddy is not a
> "removable drive" as far as the operating
> system is concerned. I hope this clears this
> up for you.
>
Thank you for your reply, Bob. So, will Windows XP consider the drive
placed outside to be "internal" if the drive is connected to the PC via
either IDE or SCSI?
Can a hard drive be physically placed outside the PC box and still be
connected to the PC via an IDE cable? Do PC's have an IDE port (or IDE jack)
exposed outside so that an IDE drive placed outside can be attached?
Many years ago, when there was no USB, I used to have a PC with a SCSI port
on the back of the PC. I do not remember whether the SCSI port came with
the PC or I installed a SCSI card on the PCI slot.
Timothy Daniels
> Can a hard drive be physically placed outside the PC box
> and still be connected to the PC via an IDE cable? Do PC's
> have an IDE port (or IDE jack) exposed outside so that an
> IDE drive placed outside can be attached?
Not from an OEM since the length of IDE cables are
strictly defined. See the spec on page 29 of:
http://t13.org/docs2004/d1532v2r4b-ATA-ATAPI-7.pdf
With SATA hard drives, more is possible:
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=27&ID=231
http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE1&mt=p
http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE2&mt=p
*TimDaniels*
Holt
>> Can a hard drive be physically placed
>> outside the PC box and still be
>> connected to the PC via an IDE cable?
>> Do PC's have an IDE port (or IDE jack)
>> exposed outside so that an IDE drive
>> placed outside can be attached?
Timothy Daniels wrote:
> Not from an OEM since the length of IDE
> cables are strictly defined.
> With SATA hard drives, more is possible:
> http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=27&ID=231
> http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE1&mt=p
> http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE2&mt=p
Thank you for your reply, Tim. Following your advice, I read the web pages
you mentioned. So, roughly speaking, it seems as if there is a decent trick
to pull out a Serial ATA (SATA) wire from inside the PC and to attach the
wire to a SATA hard drive placed outside the PC. The trick uses two parts.
One is StarTech's SATA Data Internal to External Slot Plate. The other is
Kingwin's SATA enclosure kit.
With this trick, an "internal" hard drive can be physically placed outside
the PC. The PC and Windows XP will presumably be fooled to consider this
kind of external drive to be an internal drive. So, the setup program on
the Windows XP installer CD will presumably install Windows XP onto this
kind of external drive. The Windows XP installed on this kind of external
drive will presumably be able to boot the PC. Are these presumptions right?
Will Windows XP on this kind of external drive really boot the PC?
I have further questions. If the motherboard or the SATA controller has two
internal SATA ports, then the PC will be able to have two "internal" hard
drives--one placed inside the PC and the other possibly placed outside the
PC. Is it possible to install Windows XP to both drives? Once Windows XP
is installed to both drives, how can one instruct the PC to use which drive
as the booting drive? Does BIOS have settings for that, perhaps?
I have a further question. Does the motherboard or the SATA controller of a
typical recent PC have two SATA ports? If there is only one SATA port and
if the port is already occupied by the drive placed inside the PC, then one
cannot have a second SATA drive.
I have one more question about the trick of having an "internal" SATA hard
drive placed physically outside the PC. Is this trick applicable to
laptop/notebook computers? I do not think StarTech's "SATA Data Internal to
External Slot Plate" fits on laptop/notebook computers.
R. McCarty
Removable device.
Note the distinction between the terms external and removable.
If you have a physical drive in a external housing and it's connected
via a SATA channel - XP enumerates it as a Fixed Drive. If you
examine the Policies of an external SATA drive the Removal options
boxes will be disabled/grayed out.
External SATA drives are Bootable and can be selected by the
PC's BIOS boot device parameters.
"Holt" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:285f4ad0918842d1...@ureader.com...
Anna
You've raised some very good questions. Please see my inline comments.
Anna
"Holt" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:285f4ad0918842d1...@ureader.com...
> Holt wrote:
>
>>> Can a hard drive be physically placed
>>> outside the PC box and still be
>>> connected to the PC via an IDE cable?
>>> Do PC's have an IDE port (or IDE jack)
>>> exposed outside so that an IDE drive
>>> placed outside can be attached?
>
>
> Timothy Daniels wrote:
>
>> Not from an OEM since the length of IDE
>> cables are strictly defined.
>
>> With SATA hard drives, more is possible:
>> http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=27&ID=231
>> http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE1&mt=p
>> http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE2&mt=p
Holt (& Tim):
While it's true that IDE ribbon cable specifications call for a length no
more than 18", in this "real world" of ours there's really no performance
issue involved in using a 24" (or even a 36") IDE data cable. At least none
that we've ever encountered using these longer cables. We've routinely
connect PATA drives outside the computer (usually we never actually need a
data cable exceeding 18" in length), usually for cloning purposes. Since
it's a temporary situation, in most cases we use only the bare drive,
dispensing with any enclosure.
> Thank you for your reply, Tim. Following your advice, I read the web
> pages
> you mentioned. So, roughly speaking, it seems as if there is a decent
> trick
> to pull out a Serial ATA (SATA) wire from inside the PC and to attach the
> wire to a SATA hard drive placed outside the PC. The trick uses two
> parts.
> One is StarTech's SATA Data Internal to External Slot Plate. The other is
> Kingwin's SATA enclosure kit.
Holt:
There's really no "trick" involved. We've used that StarTech device
(SATAPOWPLAT1) which retails for about $15 I think with a bare SATA drive.
You really don't need the Kingwin (or similar) SATA enclosure in this
situation since it really has no function other than to contain the drive.
You can make the data & power connections directly from the StarTech device
to the drive itself. It would be nice to have a simple enclosure merely to
house the drive for protective purposes. We sometimes use the removable tray
(caddy) in a SATA mobile rack to hold the drive. That works.
> With this trick, an "internal" hard drive can be physically placed outside
> the PC. The PC and Windows XP will presumably be fooled to consider this
> kind of external drive to be an internal drive. So, the setup program on
> the Windows XP installer CD will presumably install Windows XP onto this
> kind of external drive. The Windows XP installed on this kind of external
> drive will presumably be able to boot the PC. Are these presumptions
> right?
> Will Windows XP on this kind of external drive really boot the PC?
Yes, you've got it right. But again, it's no "trick". We're not "fooling"
anyone or anything. The system treats the SATA drive as it should, i.e., as
an internal drive. Period. The fact that the drive resides outside the
computer case is irrelevant. It's connected to the motherboard's SATA
connector (there's one exception that I'll comment on later) just like any
other internal SATA drive.
> I have further questions. If the motherboard or the SATA controller has
> two
> internal SATA ports, then the PC will be able to have two "internal" hard
> drives--one placed inside the PC and the other possibly placed outside the
> PC. Is it possible to install Windows XP to both drives? Once Windows XP
> is installed to both drives, how can one instruct the PC to use which
> drive
> as the booting drive? Does BIOS have settings for that, perhaps?
Again, you've got it right. The SATA drives are internal drives, whether
they're residing inside or outside the computer's case. You could install XP
to both drives, but I really don't know why you would want to. If it's for
backup purposes, why not simply "clone" the contents of one drive to another
using a disk imaging program? But if you need it, you can do it. And in
*most* (but not all) cases the BIOS boot order can be modified so that you
can boot to one drive or the other. (But we've come across some motherboards
where a physical disconnect of one SATA drive was needed before the system
would boot to the other drive. The user was unable to change the BIOS boot
order in this case. This only involved SATA drives, and not PATA ones. But
those were rare exceptions).
> I have a further question. Does the motherboard or the SATA controller of
> a
> typical recent PC have two SATA ports? If there is only one SATA port and
> if the port is already occupied by the drive placed inside the PC, then
> one
> cannot have a second SATA drive.
Yes, every motherboard that we've come across that supports SATA capability
has at least two SATA connectors. And more & more motherboards are coming
equipped with four (or more) SATA connectors. In this connection I would
strongly advise anyone contemplating purchasing a new motherboard to get one
with four SATA ports. They're generally the better MBs and more costly, but
swing for it if you can.
> I have one more question about the trick of having an "internal" SATA hard
> drive placed physically outside the PC. Is this trick applicable to
> laptop/notebook computers? I do not think StarTech's "SATA Data Internal
> to
> External Slot Plate" fits on laptop/notebook computers.
Stop calling it a "trick"! (Just kidding). I'm not aware of any similar
device being available for a laptop/notebook. but there may very well be.
And it's a near certainty similar devices will become available for those
computer-types in the not-too-distant future. But I would guess is would be
something a bit different. And here I'll comment on another type of SATA
connector that's coming into vogue...
A number of the newer MBs now come equipped with an eSATA connector. Note
the lower-case "e" which apparently stands for "external". It's a SATA data
connector (port) on the I/O backplane of the computer (where the monitor,
keyboard, mouse, etc. ports are). Interestingly, that eSATA port is
physically different from a "normal" SATA data port and takes a different
connector. Presumably it was designed to afford better connectivity for the
SATA external data cable. But the problem here (well, maybe not a problem,
but a limitation, is that there's no power connector. So how will one get
power to the SATA drive residing outside the case? I guess here's where the
Kingwin and similar SATA enclosures be useful since they incorporate a power
supply. But why do we need the bulk & additional expense of such an
enclosure when it would seem to be easy enough to include a power port
adjacent to the eSATA connector that would use the computer's power supply?
Perhaps there are MB's coming so equipped; it's just that I haven't come
across any.
Just one other comment concerning the eSATA connector. There has been some
indication that this connector can be used *only* as a data drive
connection, i.e., the SATA drive connected to it would *not* be bootable. I
haven't worked with an eSATA connector yet so I don't know if that's true or
not. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to do so in the next few days. But
if anyone has any info on this, I would certainly like to hear about it.
As I've previously mentioned to Tim, it would seem to me that the days of
the USB/Firewire external hard drives are numbered as we go more & more to
SATA drives. The desirability of having a *bootable* hard drive residing
outside the computer is an enormous advantage; no doubt about it.
Anna
Timothy Daniels
The SATA HD in the external enclosure would be treated as an
internal SATA HD. If the motherboard's BIOS can boot an internal
SATA HD, it will do so for the external SATA HD.
> I have further questions. If the motherboard or the SATA controller
> has two internal SATA ports, then the PC will be able to have two
> "internal" hard drives--one placed inside the PC and the other
> possibly placed outside the PC. Is it possible to install Windows XP
> to both drives? Once Windows XP is installed to both drives, how
> can one instruct the PC to use which drive as the booting drive?
> Does BIOS have settings for that, perhaps?
You're getting into multi-booting, which Windows XP can do
quite well. The easiest way is to just make a clone of an
already-installed OS, and then add another entry to the boot.ini
file at C:\boot.ini pointing the other OS. That's a topic for another
thread.
Another way to multi-boot is to switch the HDs around, putting
the HD to be booted at the physical position that corresponds
to the head of the BIOS's HD boot order or by instructing the
BIOS to rearrange its HD boot order. That's also a topic for
another thread.
If you choose to make a clone, make the 1st boot of that clone
with the "parent" or "source" HD disconnected from the system.
Thereafter, the clone may be allowed to "see" its "parent" OS
when it boots with no problem. The "parent" can always be
booted with the clone visible to it with no problem. The running
OS will see the other OS's partition as just another "Local Disk"
which contains an accessible file structure, and you can drag 'n
drop files between the two. The running OS will call its partition
"Local Disk C:", and it will usually call the other partition "Local
Disk D:".
> I have a further question. Does the motherboard or the SATA controller of a
> typical recent PC have two SATA ports? If there is only one SATA port and
> if the port is already occupied by the drive placed inside the PC, then one
> cannot have a second SATA drive.
The motherboards with SATA that I've seen have 2 SATA ports.
I expect that they will also come with 4 SATA ports.
> I have one more question about the trick of having an "internal" SATA
> hard drive placed physically outside the PC. Is this trick applicable to
> laptop/notebook computers? I do not think StarTech's "SATA Data
> Internal to External Slot Plate" fits on laptop/notebook computers.
I'm not a laptop guy, so I don't know. Sorry.
*TimDaniels*
Timothy Daniels
> You really don't need the Kingwin (or similar) SATA enclosure
> in this situation since it really has no function other than to contain
> the drive.
The two advantages of the enclosure are cooling and power.
COOLING
The Kingwin external HD enclosure has a fan to provide forced
air flow over the HD. Temperature has a great affect on the
longevity of a HD, and forced air cooling does a better job to
keep the HD temperature down than does open air convective
cooling.
POWER
By adding a separate power supply for the external HD,
you reduce the load and temperature of the main power
supply inside the computer case. In a system with, say
2 high end graphics cards and a 4GHz CPU and 3 internal
HDs, the addition of another HD could put a thermal strain
on the internal power supply. I notice that the newer
Highpoint IDE controller cards feature staggered start-up
for the HDs, and that must be indicative of the stress that
multiple HDs can put on a power supply if they all start up
together.
*TimDaniels*
Timothy Daniels
Here's some comments by Microsoft on SATA external enclosures from
"Serial ATA in the Microsoft Operating System Environment"
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/serialATA_FAQ.mspx#EGAA
Here's a quote:
"Serial ATA as an External Connection
"The Serial ATA cabling is thin and flexible and resembles USB or FireWire
connectors and cabling. Additionally, Serial ATA storage devices can be
hot-plugged just like USB and FireWire devices. Understandably, there is
speculation that Serial ATA will also someday be used as an external
connection like USB and FireWire.
"Serial ATA must overcome two challenges before external Serial ATA
connectors become external connectors; first, there is competition with
other external buses, and second is the resiliency of the Serial ATA
cables and connectors.
"Both USB and FireWire are general purpose buses to which many types
of devices attach. Serial ATA only connects to storage devices that are
not used commonly as external devices as USB or FireWire devices are.
If it is unlikely that a user will use a Serial ATA external port, it becomes
an unnecessary expense.
"The resiliency concerns come from the Serial ATA cables and connectors,
which were not originally designed as external cables like USB and FireWire.
It is unclear how well the cables will hold up outside of a protected enclosure.
Additionally, it is unclear how well a Serial ATA connector will hold up to daily
attaching and detaching. Finally, it is unknown how external electronics will
affect the signal integrity of the Serial ATA cable."
*TimDaniels*
Anna
"Timothy Daniels" <TDan...@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:jrKdnc1jycfsbave...@comcast.com...
Tim:
Truth to tell, the "thermal strain" that would be placed on the computer's
power supply in terms of an additional connection to the SATA drive (under
these circumstances) is so negligible that it's hardly worth discussing. If
such a "strain" was present, the PS is woefully inadequate to begin with and
should be replaced.
Tim, I've worked with scores of different removable drives in mobile racks
over the past five years. Some were aluminum; some were plastic; some were a
combination of the two. In many cases the racks containing the drives didn't
even have a fan. With one rather weird exception, I can't recall a single
failure of a drive or any other drive-related problems due to heat during
this time. I hasten to add, however, that there's certainly no downside to
an external enclosure having one or more fans. Indeed, you would be
hard-pressed to find one that *didn't* have one or more fans.
In the case of the SATA drives that we've been discussing, the drive will be
outside the computer case. Presumably its exclusive function will be for
backup/storage purposes. It will do just fine even if it's in a cigar box.
As I've mentioned before, what we would like to have available is a simple
enclosure to house the "external" SATA drive that would utilize *direct*
data & power leads from the computer. If such an enclosure contains a fan or
fans, swell.
Anna
Timothy Daniels
But all the removable trays had a grill in the front which allowed air
to be drawn in by the low pressure produced by the case exhaust
fan.
> With one rather weird exception, I can't recall a single failure
> of a drive or any other drive-related problems due to heat during
> this time.
What is "this time"? Don't expect a HD to fail after 10 minutes
of transferring files without a fan on it. But if you're going to be
using the external HD for gaming or video editing or defrags,
etc., you ought to keep it cool. The newsgroup
"comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage" has been seeing a steady
wail of postings complaining about failure of USB external drives
due to nothing apparent besides high temperature.
> In the case of the SATA drives that we've been discussing, the drive
> will be outside the computer case.
As I pointed out, open air convection doesn't cool a HD as well
as forced air, even if the HD is sitting flat on a desk. At minimum,
it ought to be standing on an edge, but that is quite unstable.
> Presumably its exclusive function will be for backup/storage purposes.
Hey, haven't we just been talking about booting the OS from it?
> It will do just fine even if it's in a cigar box.
Not with *my* HDs!
> As I've mentioned before, what we would like to have available
> is a simple enclosure to house the "external" SATA drive that
> would utilize *direct* data & power leads from the computer. If
> such an enclosure contains a fan or fans, swell.
Maybe there's a reason why external drive makers and cable
makers don't want to take power off the motherboard.
*TimDaniels*
R. McCarty
a MS press book to get better air flow around it. It only has a row
of vent holes in the front. If you leave it on for more than 2 hours
the case itself gets very hot. The bad thing about it is no way to
monitor the drive thermals. With SATA and PATA drives you can
monitor the disk temps. Somewhere in the development of these
drives the heat considerations must have been omitted. I suspect
that internally it's probably one of those DiamondMax drives that
run hot anyway. Just this past week, I had to scrap a DiamondMax
under testing. SpinRite would stop running on it as it temp climbed
to well above 135 degrees. I would suggest that anyone using Maxtor
IDE drives keep an eye on the drive's thermals.
Currently, I'm using and recommending Hitachi drives. Their latest
SATA units run on average around 85 degrees.
Anna
Yes, it is a significant advantage that these SATA "external" drives can be
bootable. But again I see no endemic real-life problems re heat or power
affecting these devices.even when the drive would be in use for relatively
long periods of time.
I think it's fair to say that when we (and I think this really encompasses
virtually every PC user) use an external device such as the SATA HD one that
we've been discussing, as a practical matter it's used in nearly every case
for one basic purpose. And that is for backup/storage purposes, specifically
to be the recipient of a clone of the working HD, or as the transmitter of
its cloned contents to the internal drive for restoration purposes. I
honestly don't know anyone who would be using this external device for hours
on end playing games or for other reasons. It could be done, of course, but
it's highly unlikely, is it not? The booting advantage is primarily to allow
the user to gain temporary access to his/her programs & data with
(presumably) the objective of restoring his/her internal drive from the
external one. And even with the drive running for long periods, I really
don't think there will be any significant power problems with the device
getting its power from the computer's PS, nor any heat-related problems.
As far as the heat-related problems you mentioned with respect to USBEHDs,
we just haven't encountered any. At least none that we're aware of. Lord
knows there are other significant problems with those devices but we just
haven't run into heat-related ones. Can it happen? Sure.
Anna
"Timothy Daniels" <TDan...@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:iZ6dnXFto7J...@comcast.com...
Timothy Daniels
> I see no endemic real-life problems re heat or power
> affecting these devices.even when the drive would be
> in use for relatively long periods of time.
The effects of heat on electrical components are
cumulative. They affect especially the capacitors.
With the hysteresis of fluid bearings, the bearings
probably get warm as well - they do on my Maxtors.
Keeping the temps down extends the life of any
electrical or mechanical component. In my PC,
airflow keeps the HD temps at about body temp
(i.e. ~37 deg Celcius), and I've had no HD problems
in 6 years. YMMV.
*TimDaniels*
Timothy Daniels
> I have an external Maxtor LE5000 USB drive. I have it sitting on
> a MS press book to get better air flow around it. It only has a row
> of vent holes in the front. If you leave it on for more than 2 hours
> the case itself gets very hot.
That is typical of the current crop of USB external drives, and
probably the reason for their failure rate that is higher than
the equivalent internal drives. I've always run Maxtors, and I
currently have 3 running at any one time - DiamondMax Plus 9s -
in my PC tower, and due to good forced airflow, they run at
body temperature. Maybe a cooling fan would help your USB
drive.
*TimDaniels*
Ray Thompson
Timothy Daniels wrote:
> "R. McCarty" wrote:
>
>> I have an external Maxtor LE5000 USB drive. [[snip]] It only has a row
>> of vent holes in the front. If you leave it on for more than 2 hours
>> the case itself gets very hot.
>
> That is typical of the current crop of USB external drives, and
> probably the reason for their failure rate that is higher than
> the equivalent internal drives.
I'm running two Western Digital external hard drives from USB 2.0 ports.
They're stacked one on top of the other, with about a half-inch of
clearance between them. (Vents on the sides and tops) They're on 24
hours a day. Neither is the least bit hot.
bxf
Ray Thompson wrote:
>
> I'm running two Western Digital external hard drives from USB 2.0 ports.
>
> They're stacked one on top of the other, with about a half-inch of
> clearance between them. (Vents on the sides and tops) They're on 24
> hours a day. Neither is the least bit hot.
This is unusual, I think. Are these drives spinning constantly? Normal
Windows power management settings seem to have no effect on USB dives,
so they spin non-stop. However, there are some drives that perform
their own power management and stop the spinning after some period of
inactivity. If I'm not mistaken, Western Digital provide such a
function. This would explain why your drives are not hot.
---
The passing lane ends just before you reach the slow vehicle.
Holt
Holt
points. Thanks a lot.
> Stop calling it a "trick"! (Just kidding).
All right.
> removable drives in mobile racks
>
> the removable tray (caddy) in a SATA
> mobile rack to hold the drive
I am not familiar with those. What is a removable tray? What is a mobile
rack?
Holt
Anna
> Thank you very much for your reply, Anna. Your comments clarified many
> points. Thanks a lot.
>> the removable tray (caddy) in a SATA
>> mobile rack to hold the drive
> I am not familiar with those (removable drives in mobile racks)
> What is a removable tray? What is a mobile rack?
>
> Holt
Holt:
It's a most wonderful hardware configuration for a desktop (not a
laptop/notebook) computer. It's a pity more computer users don't use this
hardware arrangement.
Some time ago, in response to a request I received from a computer club, I
prepared an article for their monthly bulletin outlining the advantages of
equipping one's desktop computer with removable hard drives and provided
some details about their installation & use. Slightly edited, here it is. I
trust you (and others possibly interested in this hardware configuration)
will find it of some value. Note that I referred to the
connection/configuration of PATA drives since that was the primary interest
of my audience. Using SATA drives would even simplify the configuration.
Assuming your desktop computer has two available 5 1/4" bays, i.e., vacant
bays that you can utilize, you can equip your computer with two removable
hard drives in their mobile racks. By equipping your computer in this
fashion you will, for all practical purposes, be able to simply and easily
maintain a near fail-safe backup system and at the same time be able to
experiment with different programs and configurations with the full
realization that should anything go awry you will be able to return to your
original system and configuration in a near-instant. And accomplish all this
from the comfort of
your computer chair with no need to get inside your computer case to make
frequently complicated cable/power disconnects and connects. It's close to
an ideal system for many, if not most, desktop computer users and I can
virtually guarantee that
once you begin working with this arrangement you'll never want to return to
the "old" way. It's that good.
The hard drives are housed in so-called "mobile racks" that fit in the 5
1/4" bays of a desktop's computer case. The racks are easily installed in a
computer's case; the installation process is virtually no different than
installing any other 5 1/4" device such as a CD/DVD device. The racks
themselves are two-piece affairs with the HD residing in a removable tray
that slides in and out of the rack. The beauty of this arrangement is that
the drives can be easily accessed from outside the computer case. An
enormous advantage. Note that these mobile racks are designed for desktop
computers and are not feasible for laptops/notebooks because of their
size/weight considerations.
So by using a disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or
Acronis True Image or other disk imaging program, you can routinely clone
the contents of your day-to-day working hard drive to the second drive, thus
having a virtual bit-for-bit copy of that working drive with the added
advantage that the cloned drive will be bootable. And through the use of
additional removable trays you're free to create additional clones on hard
drives that you can easily remove from the premises for near-absolute
security. Then again, you can use separate (limitless!) hard drives for
whatever purposes you desire -- different operating systems, photos, one
each for your children and for the visiting grandchild, etc. And you're free
to make clones of *those* drives if you so desire. And when the day comes
that one or another of your hard drives goes to Hard Drive Heaven (Hell?),
it's a simple matter to replace that drive from the comfort of your computer
chair without having to get inside your computer case.
In my opinion the best arrangement is to have *two* removable hard drives
installed. Assuming you're using PATA drives, one mobile rack containing
your day-to-day working drive would be connected as Primary Master and the
second rack (usually) connected as Secondary Master. With this configuration
you could boot to whichever drive you desired simply by turning the other
rack's keylock to the Off position.
However, if you have only a single 5 1/4" bay available to house one mobile
rack, you can still profitably use a single removable hard drive. In this
instance you would have your day-to-day working hard drive installed as a
fixed internal drive and the second drive would be your removable drive. The
fixed internal drive (i.e., your C: drive) would be configured as Secondary
Master while the removable drive would be your Primary Master. During normal
operations the removable drive would be electrically disconnected from the
machine by a simple turn of the mobile rack's keylock to the Off position.
(For additional safety, you could even physically disconnect the removable
drive from the computer by a simple pull of the rack's handle. No more
difficult then opening a small desk drawer). So, with this configuration,
the system would boot to your internal hard drive. When a time comes that
you want to boot from the removable drive you would simply connect it by
turning the keylock to the On position. Since it's configured as Primary
Master, the computer will boot to that drive. Using this configuration, the
user wouldn’t even have to remove the removable tray housing the HD.
Do you see the enormous advantages of this hardware configuration? Now you
can safely "play around" with a wide variety of programs and configurations
on your day-to-day working hard drive, confident that if anything goes awry
(even to the extent that your working drive becomes physically or
electronically defective), you have a perfectly good bootable clone that is
virtually instantly at hand. And you can easily clone back to your internal
drive (assuming it's not mechanically/electronically defective) the contents
of the previously cloned removable drive.
There's a wide variety of mobile racks available on the market ranging in
cost from about $15 (all plastic) to $50 and up for the all-aluminum models.
Interestingly enough, in my experience the cheapest models seem to work just
as well as the more expensive ones. Installing them is no more difficult
then installing a CD-ROM or other 5 1/4" device. You can do a Google search
of "mobile racks" to peruse the many different available models.
I can assure you that once you begin working with removable hard drives
(preferably two), you'll have one and only one regret -- that you didn't
have this hardware configuration on your previous desktop computer(s). It's
that good.
Anna
Holt
> You're getting into multi-booting ...
> That's a topic for another thread
Thank you also for the summary of multi-booting solution.
Holt
Timothy Daniels
> What is a removable tray? What is a mobile
> rack?
For PATA drives:
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_Cat.asp?CateID=35
For SATA drives:
http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_Cat.asp?CateID=47
*TimDaniels*