Removable Hard Drive Rack

[MrPALCO]

I am looking for suggestions on the best Removable hard drive rack for the following drives I have:
Maxtor 7200 15GB Ultra ATA100
5400 8.4GB UDMA66
Seagate 7200 15.3GB

I bought a data swap brand and a generic brand and neither one would allow my hard drives to be recognized by the bios(yep they both claimed to support UDMA66 IDE and I double and triple checked cables wires swaped with different wires, etc)

Hooked the drives up direct without the rack, and they run fine.

Using Drive Copy to copy drives for back up.

Help! I want to buy the best quality with a real working fan......hmmm....maybe nobody makes one yet!......hehehehehe.

 

[Viper GTS]

Aha! There you are, you disappearing post!

And I repeat what I said in OT:

I assume you locked them? I have two removable bays, with fans, & they have to be locked into place for the drive to receive power...

Viper GTS

 

[MrPALCO]

Viper GTS

You know...I did not do that on either one...does that make the difference?

edit....I'll give that a try....thanks...

 

[Viper GTS]

Yeah, it makes a difference. Mine have to be locked using the key before you can use them. Confused the hell out of me for a while too.



Viper GTS

 

[corkyg]

I have two in each of my two systems. The best are ATA 66 capable (that means they have the 80-wire ribbon internally). Also, when possible, select the ones with aluminum racks and trays, and with a Centronics connector (male and female) internally.

It also makes things really slick if you use Cable Select ribbon cables and set all HDD jumpers to CS. That way you can swap drives from upper to lower and vice versa.

There are many advantages to using mobile racks . . . I'm surprised more people don't. In offices they allow individuals to have their own HDD and system and not share it. At home they allow different OS's without having to diddle with multi-boot. And lastly, they are the cat's ass for cloning drives . . . the ultimate system backup.

Been using mine now for a few months and love 'em.

BTW . . . the latches must be closed and the keys on for power and recognition. If you get power and no recognition, then your jumpers are probably not right . . . assuming all conectors are in tight.

 

[MrPALCO]

Hey Guys,

I haven't got into my system yet but I'm certain the problem was not having the lock on, the is an on/off switch that is integrated into the lock.

corky-g

Your tip on cable select is what I need. What is the Centronics connector?

Could you tell me more about your set up, I want to duplicate it on my rig.

 

[Toro 45]

Are you sure about locking them always? I thought that was optional. I bought a couple of Agate'Hot Data Shuffle. I never locked them, they worked fine for about a week then I started getting random lock ups & bsod untill I removed them from both computers.

Also I found the the bios never recognized them, only windows & not untill the software was installed.

 

[Fireball]

Can someone point me to a link that sells the alumnium UATA/66 capable drive bays?

 

[JackMDS]

http://computergate.com/cgi-bin/start

 

[corkyg]

MrPALCO: Cable Select IDE data ribbon cables are made by GSI (www.gsi-inc.com) I usually search for them at Multiwave or BuyComp. The part number is 1548-CS-RU-8.

I use them for all my IDE devices and set everything at "CS." The position on the cable then determines M or S.

I have two mobile racks mounted in the bottom two bays in full towers. The top one is at the end of the cable and the bottom one on the middle connector. I set the BIOS for AUTO on both . . . don't ask it to ID the drives because you then lose AUTO.

I only turn on one drive at a time with the key lock . . . it is an integrated power switch. I can boot from either drive . . . doesn't matter. I also have an extra inner tray with a third drive I use for experiments with beta ware and odd ball OS's.

Once a week I reclone the unused drive with Drive Copy 3.0 (each is a 20GB IBM 7200). DC 3 is self booting vis floppy. When done I then turn the source drive OFF and reboot. This validates the cloning. I always have a ready-to-go back up drive, so it makes for "fearless" tweaking and trying of different things.

 

[MrPALCO]

corky-g

Another question, I am running a Tyan s1590s board, must the board and Bios be able to support cable select?