Toaster? David, what was that thing, and what drives?

[Santilli]

Hi D
What was that toaster, and what drives are you using?

gs

 

[ddrueding]

One of these combined with one of these.

Any 2.5" or 3.5" SATA drive will work.

 

[Santilli]

What drives do you use?
Also, what removeable drive setup did you have that didn't require a caddy?

 

[LunarMist]

The whole point is that you can use any SATA drives. I have a Thermaltake version of the dual slot variety. Only the first drive is seen by some low level apps, unless you have a PM compatible controller. A fan is desirable for continuous use with mnay 7200 RPM drives. Mainly they are useful for testing and backups or other short term use.

 

[ddrueding]

Lunar said it. Any drive will do. I wouldn't reccomend it for long-term use, as there is n active cooling.

 

[MaxBurn]

Can also be rather loud as the drives are right there in no enclosure at all.

 

[LunarMist]

They can become dusty and be harder to clean as well.

 

[Bozo]

What drives do you use?
Also, what removeable drive setup did you have that didn't require a caddy?

Antec makes a nice removable drive setup. About $30.00

 

[LunarMist]

The link goes to the front page. Is that the one with its ass hanging out?

 

[Bozo]

When I tried it, the link went to Antec's Easy SATA page.

What were you looking at??

 

[LunarMist]

Nope. It needs a cookie. Is this the one?

 

[Bozo]

Hmm, interesting.

Yep, that's the one. Antec Easy SATA

 

[Santilli]

DD:

Where on your motherboard do you hook that connector up to? Which port?

I don't have many that aren't filled...

Thanks

Greg

 

[Bozo]

DD:

Where on your motherboard do you hook that connector up to? Which port?

I don't have many that aren't filled...

Thanks

Greg

If it is the Startek model, you get two cables. One is for USB, the other for an external SATA port.

 

[ddrueding]

I also linked to an eSata bracket above. That is what I plug it into ;-)

 

[Santilli]

So I would use the last remaining SATA port?;-(

 

[ddrueding]

You could always use it in USB mode, but you would have a potential performance hit.

 

[Bozo]

The nice part of using USB, you can have two drives in the toaster on one connection. You need a eSATA connection for each drive that is in the toaster.
I also feel more comfortable removing a hard drive from the toaster if it is USB and I don't want to shutdown the computer.
You can set your computer up to use AHCI and hot swap the hard drives in and out of the toaster, but I have scrambled a couple of hard drives that way.

 

[ddrueding]

The nice part of using USB, you can have two drives in the toaster on one connection. You need a eSATA connection for each drive that is in the toaster.
I also feel more comfortable removing a hard drive from the toaster if it is USB and I don't want to shutdown the computer.
You can set your computer up to use AHCI and hot swap the hard drives in and out of the toaster, but I have scrambled a couple of hard drives that way.

I just power down the drive after not writing anything to it for a while (just like USB thumbdrives). Haven't had any issues yet.

 

[LunarMist]

The nice part of using USB, you can have two drives in the toaster on one connection. You need a eSATA connection for each drive that is in the toaster.
I also feel more comfortable removing a hard drive from the toaster if it is USB and I don't want to shutdown the computer.
You can set your computer up to use AHCI and hot swap the hard drives in and out of the toaster, but I have scrambled a couple of hard drives that way.

My Thermaltake BlacX Duet only needs one USB or one eSATA port for both drives. It contains a USB/eSATA JBOD PM. Drives are fully hot swappable in Windows. Make sure you are using a compatible SATA controller, not necessarily an ICH.

 

[Santilli]

I'm using the Granite Digital Hotswap for drives. The caddies are pretty good heat sinks, and have little fans that help. However, I have a bunch of drives that are end of life, and, need to come out of the caddies, due to being good backups, but full, and or too small for much work. The toaster looks like a great solution, and, it will keep me from buying anymore caddies at 30 bucks a pop.