need help with hot swap ide hdd enclosure.

M

MATTRESS

Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Messages
992
ok, here's a link to a product that i got: https://www.computersurplusoutlet.com/viewproduct.asp?productid=STO-MRBL

it says in plain text "Hot Swappable".

Here's what i'm trying to do. I got 2 of them, one for me, one for my girlfriend's computer. This way, I can put files on here, and stick my hard drive in my girlfriend's puter. </pun> anyway, we're both running windows xp pro. the hdd is formated in NTFS. Here's were we have trouble. anything that was on the hdd BEFORE i put it in the enclosure is perfectly accessible in her computer. now that i got it, and copied a file over onto it, and brought it to her house, windows comes up and says it can't access the file. so we go back to my house, i can access it once, then it gives me the same error. so i copy the file into a different folder on the hdd. then copy it. and copy it again. one of them just has to work! no go. none of them can be accessed. so i bring the hdd back home, and everything is perfectly normal here. I dont' have any experience with this stuff, and was wondering if there's any special options i have to configure in windows to tell it that i want this drive to be hot swappable.

i turned off "Write caching" and "indexing", but i haven't tested to see if this fixed anything yet.

are there any drivers or software i need to install? any help would be great!
thanks!
-Matt
 
I assume both of these machines are XP Pro....


What you are having is a NTFS permissions problem. Easy enough to fix.

To fix it you need access to the Security tab. To get this you need to disable simple file sharing. Open My Computer, go to Tools, Folder options. On the View tab scroll all the way to the bottom and disable the option for "Enable Simple File Sharing"

Click Apply and then OK. Reboot not required.

Right click on the drive in My Computer, pick Properties, go to the security tab. You'll see a list of users for that drive. If "Everyone" shows up in the list click on it, tick the ALLOW box for FULL CONTROL and click Apply.

If Everyone is not listed, click Add, type Everyone in the text box and click OK. Give Everyone FULL CONTROL, click Apply.




As for the hotswap thing....

IDE does not in any way shape or form support hot swapping. It was not designed to do so electrically or in protocol. Don't care what it says on the box. The only way to get true and SAFE hotswap support is with a specialized IDE controller and matching backplane/tray. And these are not cheap.

Your tray contains nothing but board that adapts a IDE connector to a Centronics connector. This does not change the fact IDE was not designed to be plugged/unplugged while live. It does not make it safe for the drive. Do not be suprised if one day your drive suddenly stops working. And if there is another drive on the same channel as your "hotswappable" drive when you unplug it, you may very well cause your system to lockup.....
 
^ excellent answer :D

there is limited hotswap support for IDE in Windows98
which is how they get away with the "hotswap" claim
but in truth, you should power down even then, as it still doesnt address power glitching

Hotswap Issues (PDF) issues that are addressed in the latest SCSI standard to support hotswap

Problem Areas
Signal Glitching, data & control lines
Termpwr Glitching excessive bypass
Power Glitching (Current limiting device required)
Faulty Device current limiting
Powered Down Devices

there are IDE RAID cards and accessory IDE hotswap enclosures, that support true IDE hotswap

"SuperTrak100 and SuperTrak66 ATA RAID support "hot swapping" of failed drives when used with Promise Technology's SuperSwap? "hot swap" enclosure, providing for continuous operation without powering down a system in the event of a failed drive. SuperSwap employs patent-pending ATA Sideband TechnologyTM that identifies whether a drive is being connected or removed from the PC during operation. This allows SuperSwap to fully protect drives and PC electronics when drives are removed and/or replaced in a running system. "
http://www.promise.com/company/press/press_news_detail_eng.asp?press_id=9

redundant power supplys address many of the same power glitching\bus stability\faulty device issues
Single Source Fault Tolerant Power Systems
 
wow, thanks for all the information guys!! you sure know your stuff! the security thing fixed it :)

i would have never figured that out lol. i can't thank you guys enough! :)

-Matt
 
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