Hot-Swap IDE Drives

[Satanic Atheist]

I'm looking at this (http://www.pcnextday.org/product_detail.asp?stype=5&productcode=2517-1125&group=ENC&pgroup=CAS), the SNT-133 Hot-Swap Removable IDE Drive Caddy for PATA 3.5" IDE drives.

Question is, will it work under Linux? From quick research, a lot of hot swap stuff is last-resort and should not be used for casual insertion or removal of operating drives.

Also, my research turned up that Linux is still not very good with hot-swap drives, so does anyone actually have any experience or can recommend a drive bay that will work with Linux?

What I want to do is be able to rip a running drive out of a computer, install it in a laptop IcyBox and run off with it.

Now, I know I could go for a USB2.0 based version which is guaranteed to work, but USB2.0 is still a lot slower than an IDE bus so this is not an ideal solution.

If anyone could offer some knowledge of hot-swap devices, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,

James

[Choozo]

NO, IDE drives (the IDE channel, actually) are not designed for hotswapping! You will end up frying the disk.

[StarKnight83]

Thats true about the IDE channel but for theory's sake wouldnt it be possible to add some kind of buffer chip in the enclosure that does line termination. Basically so that when an IDE drive is disconnected the chip keeps the impression that the drive is still there (while sending a status message to the host system that the drive is no longer there and to disable R/W to it-know that it wouldnt work for a single disk system-unmount) Or maybe somehow gracefully disconnecting the drive (not sure how this is possible-but i dont know specifics on IDE comm.)

[Satanic Atheist]

Hmm, if the SNT-133 will end up frying your disk, then what's the point of making an IDE hot-swap drive bay?

I know that a lot of them work on USB2.0 and this is natively hot-swap but the speed is a lot slower than the IDE bus, this is my reason for looking into it...

James

[Choozo]

They don't mention 'hot-swap' anywhere, thats just your own assumption.
What they claim (rightfully) is 'quick and easy removal', as you don't need to open up your case. You still need to power down the system before removing the disk.

[StarKnight83]

take a look at the features list: second to last one says "Supports hot swapping"

though i dont see why it would be so hard to do; especially if the interface is somekind of modified firewire/usb connection (or a proprietary format thereof) and just treat the entire thing as an external hdd though the interface-wouldnt that buffer the IDE channel enough to protect the controller? cause what is the killer when you remove an inactive ide drive (say an unmounted hdd)? (my guess would be floating lines or voltage spikes-though im not sure where the latter would come from)

[Pafnoutios]

Is there an external version of SATA that would be faster than USB or Firewire?

[Choozo]

Originally posted by StarKnight83
take a look at the features list: second to last one says "Supports hot swapping" Ah sorry, missed that one. Must be 'supported' by some sort of drivers - making the disk seen as a removable media to the OS (most likely Win?).

No problem removing an unmounted drive, but if you would mount another instead it would have to have the exact same partition table as the removed one - I guess?

I know I killed one drive I used for backing up stuff doing just that.

[Satanic Atheist]

From the link in my opening post:
Supports ATA-133 IDE Drives
Auto Handle Actuated & Auto Plug-in
Power Control Keylock, Hot Swappable
Hidden Handle to prevent mis-movement
1 rear cooling fan
4pin power connector
Cable-less connection,
Supports plug & play,
Supports hot swapping
Beige colour

Also, on another site, here (http://www.pcicase.co.uk/mobileracks.ihtml?id=24&step=2) it also says "hot-swappable".

Can anyone help explain this. I'll fire off an e-mail to the manufacturer to see if it's correct, possible and whether it will work under Linux (don't hold your breath, though).

James

[Choozo]

A quick Google search reveals that IDE hotswap is doable, but in a RAID setup - same as for SCSII drives.