Backup Harddrive - Ok to just disconnect power?

[barryng]

I currently use a second hard drive in a removable carrier to periodically make a Ghost backup clone of my main drive. After making the clone I slide the drive out and store it well out of harms way. This has a great advantage because the backup drive is electrically isolated from the computer during storgae. It is then not subject to the same corruptive influence that might damage my main drive.

The process works well but does use up a needed external drive bay. I would much prefer to mount the backup drive permanently inside the computer case. However, this would then mean taking the case cover off to connect and then disconnect the power and data cables each time I want to make a backup.

Does anyone have experiemce with leaving a data cable connected to a second hard drive but just disconnecting the power cable? If this would not cause a problem then I can use a key lock switch to simply "turn on" the hard drive when I want to make a backup. Of course I would only turn it on or off with the computer powered down but this would free up the external bay and be much more convenient than removing the case cover.

 

[Sukhoi]

I don't understand what you're talking about with the switch...would you cut the power leads going to the HDD and wire in an external switch or something?

 

[CTho9305]

my computers all lock up during IDE detection if I have a drive on the IDE cable that doesn't have power. or maybe they will time out, but its like 1 minute or so, so i'm not willing to wait. you might just be able to set the drive to "none" in bios, and just leave it hooked up... but i've never tried that.

 

[barryng]

The switch would simply remove power to the drive. It would be wired into the power cable. I anticipate a two pole switch to disconnect both the 5v and 12V leads.

 

[ChefJoe]

I have left HDs with data cables connected and no power cables connected and things seem to go through just fine.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

<< The switch would simply remove power to the drive. It would be wired into the power cable. I anticipate a two pole switch to disconnect both the 5v and 12V leads. >>


i think you also have to disconnect the IDE connection because i've tried doing wierd stuff like having a drive get power from one psu and hook up to a mobo in a different machine and it would not work. ghetto at the least

 

[McCarthy]

Doesn't this kinda defeat the purpose of having a "safe" backup drive?

Any power spikes (power supply failure leading to stray voltage into IDE circuits, lightening strike) are still going to find their way down the data path. Ok, less likely, but if you're going to all the trouble of having a HD sitting around unused just for backup it seems you'd want it safer.

Other sources for data loss - fire, water damage, computer knocked over, computer stolen - would apply to this too.

Guess you could do it that way, but it sounds like you had the right idea to start with with the removeable drive.

 

[barryng]

McCarthy, good point but I am assuming that without power the disk is not spinning and the electronics are dead so the data cannot be altered. The basis for my backups is to provide a recovery path from something that corrupts the data on the main hard disk. I am not really concerned about physical theft, fire, etc.

I was having a recurrent problem that corrupted the files on my hard disk. This problem was so severe that reformatting and reloading Windows was the only viable recovery solution. I started Ghosting to protect myself from this. The clone does provide a high comfort level so I am continuing to keep it current every few days. I also back up specific data to CDs and a Zip disk.

 

[RPB]

why not usb 2.0 or firewire?

or is there a problem with ghost and firewire and usb 2.0?

 

[Goosemaster]

WHy not just get a removable IDE bay...such as this *fancy* one here

It will solve your prob. ...unless the drive encounters resistance against its survival in the outside world

i.e. ...you drop it

 

[barryng]

I have been using a removable bay but I need the bay for something else. I have a Lian-Li case and it has four 5 1/4 inch external bays. The top bay, behind the cover, contains the pump for my water cooling system. I have a CD burner and a DVD. That leaves the fourth bay which now contains the removable drive. I would rather have this bay available for external audio and video connections. That is why I want to permanently mount the backup drive in the internal air cooled cage. The only problem doing this, ergo my original post, is that there does not seem to be a convenient way of electrically isolating (and uniosolating) it each time I make a clone.

The removable bay I am now using does not form an airtight seal when no drive is in it. It does have a spring loaded cover but it is just a somewhat loose fitting plastic flap and does not seal around the edges. This amounts to an uncontrolled air flow path into the machine and allows dust accumulation. It is a minor problem but it also can be solved by moving the backup drive inside.

I do not have a firewire port and have no available PCI expansion slots to add one. A USB external drive would work but I would have to buy one so I would much rather use what I already have. I am reasonably sure that the IDE connection I now use would be much faster than a USB connection. It takes a little over ten minutes to Ghost an 80 Gig drive with about 20 Gig of storage on it.

 

[Goosemaster]

could you disable the channel on the bios maybe?

 

[rockhard]

Sounds like an external solution would suit you best.
With both USB2 and Firewire supporting hotplugging would be ideal for your needs.
One thing to bear in mind is that its ok to backup your data, but you would still lose all the data if your house gets burgled and you loose the lot
At least with an external you can either hide it somewhere or take it with you.
I bet theres a few members on this forum who have tried the backup mullarky only to find the burglars got the better of them
JMO of course, YMMV though.

 

[tracerbullet]

I have the black wires from the power lead to my backup hard drive spliced together and through a small switch I placed into the front of my case. Works fine for me. Just make sure to turn it on or off only when the computer is completely off.