"Switch Out" Physical HDD (hard disk drive)

June 14th, 2012 - 01:06 pm ET by jaugustine | Report spam
Hi,

I have a NEC desktop computer (1999) with Win98se.
This has two physical HDDs (my modification), an internal
"Master" HDD and a removable drawer for a "Slave" HDD. Note:
I couldn't get this two HDD system to "work" using CS (cable select).

I would like to add a 2 pole switch in the wires that supply power
to the internal HDD so I can "switch out" the internal HDD (make it
"disappear") when I want to put a "Master" drive in the drawer.

Will this "work"? If not, do you know of another method?

Thank You in advance, John
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#1 Lostgallifreyan
June 14th, 2012 - 02:17 pm ET | Report spam
wrote in
news::

I have a NEC desktop computer (1999) with Win98se.
This has two physical HDDs (my modification), an internal
"Master" HDD and a removable drawer for a "Slave" HDD. Note:
I couldn't get this two HDD system to "work" using CS (cable select).




Never rely on Cable Select, there are too many discrepancies in its use.
Always specify master and slave directly. (On the 80-wire cables, that means
also get the position right, master at far end of the line.)

I would like to add a 2 pole switch in the wires that supply power
to the internal HDD so I can "switch out" the internal HDD (make it
"disappear") when I want to put a "Master" drive in the drawer.

Will this "work"? If not, do you know of another method?




That won't work for ATA devices because the disk controller feeds info to the
BIOS at boot time. Maybe if both disks were fully connected at that time,
switching out later can work, but it's a very risky move. Removable drive
trays allow this, and if you're TOTALLY sure that the drives are identical
down to the fine details of partitioning, you may be able to hot-swap them,
but even then the risk of data loss is severe.

If you want to hot-swap disks, get them onto FireWire, USB, or some other
buss that supports this.

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