IDE Drive Rack

[Will Rickards]

So I'm looking for an IDE hard drive rack. Must be PATA not SATA.
An example, Vantec MRK-102FD-SL, I was looking at is here.

Currently I have an external enclosure with my backup drive in it (where I keep my backup images).
But configuring either external usb or firewire with a ghost boot cd is proving painful and then I don't even know if it'll support writing to ntfs.

Also I want to be able to take somebody else's drive and just plug it in the front of my machine without having to take the machine apart.

So I'm looking for a good hdd rack or cage or whatever you call it.

I'm concerned about
1) airflow as backups take a while and the drive is pretty much constantly in use during this time
2) not flimsy as I might be removing it daily
3) being able to have drive in but power to it and fans off
4) being able to take drive out and not having a huge empty hole for dust to enter

Also I'd like silver as my case is silver.

p.s.
Note I also posted this at SR because this forum was down.

 

[Mercutio]

Most brands are NOT flimsy - even crummy ones (I have lots of crummy ones, part of the trainer thing). Also, they can much ALL be inserted but not powered on. They can NOT be hot swapped, however.
Most have a spring loaded dust cover for times when there's nothing in the bay. You'd have to look pretty hard to find one that didn't, I think.

What you have to watch out for is how awful the fans in the drive BAYS are. Maybe Groltz or someone knows of a non-sucky 40mm fan, but for the dozens of bays I have, it's easier to just disconnect the fan than put up with the terrible racket.

And yes, that means that the bay is not a long-term storage solution.

There are at least three different electronic specifications for the bays themselves. Put the wrong tray in a bay and you will kill your hard disk. I know this from experience.

Make sure that the internal cabling for whatever you buy uses 80-conductor cabling. Some of them don't. How long have we had ATA66? Eight years?

Um... Also, make sure you can buy extra trays separately. And if you really are going to be changing the drive every day, be aware that the key connection can wear out as well, making it progressively harder to turn on the drive.

Having said all that, I think you might consider a SATA drive bay and an IDE to SATA bridge. It'd be more flexible and then you really could hotswap the drive. Ghost supports SATA drives (and direct writing to NTFS in DOS, if you were worried about that) just fine.

 

[Will Rickards]

I didn't think hotswap would work over an PATA to SATA bridge.
Have you tried it? I was somehow under the impression the drive needed to support it but maybe just the bridge chip needs to support it.
A SATA one is definitely more appealing for future upgrades.

 

[Mercutio]

I have one IDE to SATA bridge. I've disconnected drives from it (SATA, then PATA power), but I can't say I've tried reconnecting one.

 

[Will Rickards]

Any specific recommended brands or models?

 

[Bozo]

I've been using Kingston for years. A little pricey, but you get what your paying for. http://www.storcase.com/removable/removable_overview.asp

The Vantec doesn't give any indication of how many insertions/removes the connector is rated for. Worrisome. IIRC the Kingstons are rated for 50,000+.

One model of the Kingston recievers will accept PATA or SATA, but I believe the reciever is SATA.

I am presently buying the P115 http://www.storcase.com/dataexpress/dx115.asp

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Will Rickards]

I think the model DE110 part S21J106 is what you were referring to.
I've e-mailed them about it with a few questions including hot swap abilities.
Sounds like a good one but I'm seeing a price of $143 which is much higher than the $30 or less I'm seeing for pata ones on newegg.

 

[Will Rickards]

I cannot find those PATA female to SATA male bridges online for sale. I found one, I think, on hypermicro.com. I can find plenty the other way, SATA female to PATA male. The description on hypermicro didn't tell me much but from the picture I think it is the right kind but am not sure.

 

[Mercutio]

IIRC Granite Digital has them.

 

[Bozo]

Try here: http://www.computercablesource.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=52


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Bozo]

The Storcase D115 that I'm using are hot swappable. But they are SATA

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Sol]

Sunon make a 40mm Maglev bearing fan which should be pretty quiet for a sustained period.

A couple of the bays I've seen are aluminium and contact the top of the drive to function as a heat sink. I guess that avoids the need for a fan.

 

[Will Rickards]

Bozo, are you buying the SATA or SAS version of the DX115?
If the SATA, can you take pictures of the connections?
I'm trying to determine if the IDE to SATA adapter will work with it.

 

[Santilli]

Hi
Just bought 3 of these:

http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg51_hot-swapinternalsystem.htm

Look great, but need a SATA cable.


gs

 

[Bozo]

Don't have a picture, and I'm not at work where the P115s are, but if you pick up any SATA hard drive, the connections are the same. The SATA data connector and SATA power connector are side-by-side just like a hard drive.

I won't be able to attemp a picture until Sunday or Monday.

Wouldn't it be easier to install a SATA card in a PCI slot?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ce=&ATTR1=&ATTR2=&ATTR3=&ATTR4=&ATTR5=&ATTR6=

I have a SYBA. Works fine for under $20.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Will Rickards]

My board has PATA and SATA connections.
I'm trying to use PATA drives in an SATA rack per merc's recommendation.
I see that the StorCase DE110 can do that but not sure I want to spend $143 on it.

Maybe I'll just buy a cheap PATA one to try it out and see whether shutting down the PC to take the drive in and out is too much of a pain or not.

 

[Santilli]

For 70 bucks, plus cable, these aren't all that expensive, and GD is a great company to work with.

http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg51_hot-swapinternalsystem.htm


Hope this helps. They look VERY solid.

Greg

 

[Will Rickards]

By cheap I meant something like this which is $14 shipped. Then I'll have some actual experience using one and can make my decision based on the shortcomings of the el-cheapo.

 

[Mercutio]

I have hordes of those Bytecc units. Four dozen, maybe. There's really nothing wrong with them except the crappy fans and the fact that the plastic doesn't wear all that well.

 

[Tannin]

I use the Lan-Li ones, largely because the wok just fine and it seems like a good idea to always use the same ones spo that they are compatible with each-other. Astonishingly enough, to anyone who knows what extraordinarily high prices Lan-Li charge for their cases, they are quite reasonable ... er ... I think about AU$25 plus tax, or something like that.

You can buy the inserts on their own if you want, but they cost around 80% of the price of the whole unit, so why bother? It's actualy cheaper to just stock the entire units, as the few dollars you save by not buying the outer is swamped by the fact that you need to keep stock of twice as many items - i.e., you double your fixed inventory cost.

We used to sell quite a lot of drive trays, but not many at all anymore, probably because people tend to buy USB or Firewire eternal drives instead, and possibly also because the current drives are much larger and people are not needing as many.

 

[Will Rickards]

I purchased the Bytecc this morning, I'll see how it goes.
Thanks to all for your help.

The only problem with a PATA version in my system, aside from hot swapping, is this will be device number 4 so cabling it the way I want might be interesting.

 

[Will Rickards]

Well it works, after I jumpered the devices correctly.
But I'm not at all happy with the crunching of the power wires or the data connector mating. I don't think the data connector goes in far enough. So I guess cableless is not so great. But I did my first ghost backup to it and all is well.