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Hot-Swapping The Hard Drive on the Primary IDE?

post #1 of 15
2/18/05 at 6:27pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone tried removing and/or inserting the primary hard drive (with the operating system running off a different hard drive) ?

I have a my system running from the hard drive in the modular bay and would like to read data from multiple hard drives in primary caddys (they're cheaper than the modular enclosure) without restarting the system.

Is this safe/possible? Windows DOES NOT recognize the hard drive on the primary IDE as a hot swappable device so I don't want to be the first and last to try. Though as recently stated by sonicwind, I don't want to be like "Ooh, Windows won't let me unplug my drive."

Need a brave soul to try it out. If you're up to it then when you plug in the drive and windows doesn't detect it, try running the Add Hardware Wizard guide and see if it'll automatically detect it.
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post #2 of 15
2/18/05 at 7:37pm
I would NOT suggest doing this. It is not designed to be hot swapped. I would think there is a decent chance you could short out your motherboard or something. If you really want to do this I would get a hard drive enclosure and use it as an external drive. That is a much safer/more efficient way to do it.
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post #3 of 15
2/19/05 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
I think a short is possible because the ide channels in laptops provide power to the device as well. Here is an idea then: disable the primary ide channel in the device manager before you insert/take out the hard drive. I really want for this to be possible. I know I'm asking people to possibly shoot themselves in the foot by peforming this procedure so I am not expecting (m)any volunteers.

I didn't opt for an external enclosure because it's tiresome to keep inserting a different drive to the enclosure. Unless someone can recommend me an enclosure into which a hard drive can be quickly swaped in and out. And I don't want to buy 5 separate enclosures for my hard drives.
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post #4 of 15
2/21/05 at 2:06pm
Thread Starter 
A friendly bump on account that it's President's Day.
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post #5 of 15
2/21/05 at 2:15pm
Why do you need to hot swap it anyway? Whoa this is a very scary thing to do. But if you really like to take risks i have no problems with it. Have you tried it already?
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post #6 of 15
2/21/05 at 2:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Picard
Why do you need to hot swap it anyway?
Currently I have 5 hard drives with data (they're raw numerical data) from a simulation. Each simulation can fit on either one (it can get pretty big) or multiple hard drives. As I run the program, it reads from the hard drive on the primary ide and displays the graphical representation of the simulation. Often the simulation won't fit on one drive and the program will wait for more data. This is where I have to swap in another drive that contains the rest of the simulation. (Similar thing happens when the program WRITES to multiple drives.) It is very inconvenient to restart the computer every time it does so (it can be very frequent) and especially if I'm making a presentation in front of a client.

What I like about the primary hard drive caddies is that they're easily swapped in and out (and they're cheap).

Can anyone recommend an external notebook hard drive enclosure where it is quick to put in and take out the hard drive (no screws, etc) ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by picard
But if you really like to take risks i have no problems with it. Have you tried it already?
I was hoping one of you guys would try it out. Especially if you're under warranty (and even if you're not). Give it a shot . I can't resist trying out things like this so I will eventually doi it and report back.
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post #7 of 15
2/21/05 at 11:16pm
Don't get fooled: it is completelly safe to unplug/plug the hard drive while the system is on, this is, you are not going to fry your motherboard as someone said before. The results you get, however, will vary from a lock up to a perfect functioning.

The modular bay module can be opened and left open, and it will be much easier to swap drives there. However, if you take in and out the hard drives often, you will end bending or braking some of the pins, and your hard drives will become useless.

I recommend you to buy a desktop hard drive, one wich is huge, and get it into a 3.5" USB case.
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post #8 of 15
2/21/05 at 11:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
Don't get fooled: it is completelly safe to unplug/plug the hard drive while the system is on, this is, you are not going to fry your motherboard as someone said before. The results you get, however, will vary from a lock up to a perfect functioning.
That sounds more pragmatic than shorting out the system.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
The modular bay module can be opened and left open, and it will be much easier to swap drives there. However, if you take in and out the hard drives often, you will end bending or braking some of the pins, and your hard drives will become useless.
Each primary hard drive caddy comes with a special connector that attaches on the hard drive pins so it is very easy to slide the hard drive in to the system w/o bending anything.



Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
I recommend you to buy a desktop hard drive, one wich is huge, and get it into a 3.5" USB case.
I think the biggest one is a 250gb. I'll eventually break that limit and then will be back to square one. Still waiting for recommendation on an external enclosure that gives easy access to the hard drive.
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post #9 of 15
2/22/05 at 1:33am


Can't speak for XP but Windows 2003 allows for quick removal of all drives. Never personally tested though!
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post #10 of 15
2/22/05 at 2:18am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by somms
<link dead>

Can't speak for XP but Windows 2003 allows for quick removal of all drives. Never personally tested though!
That field is disabled for the primary hard drive even if the system isn't running from it. However, the Disable option does show up on the primary ide hard drive if the system is running off a different drive.
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post #11 of 15
2/22/05 at 2:52am
Thread Starter 
Ok, I couldn't wait any longer and finally scratched the itch.

It seems to work fine. Windows recognizes the drive again when it is inserted back. Couple of things to notice though. When you disable either the hard drive and/or the primary ide channel, the hard drive isn't shut down like on the hot-swappable secondary ide. You can hear it power on and off when you insert the caddy and eject it. This is the part where I'm worried. I would feel safer if there was a way to turn off the power to the hard drive from windows.

EDIT: YOU CAN GO TO STANDBY AND THE SYSTEM POWERS DOWN THE HARD DRIVES. IT MAYBE SAFER TO INSERT/EJECT THE DRIVE THEN

Also, when you boot and nothing is connected on the primary ide, windows won't list it and if you try to insert the drive it won't be recognized even if Add Hardware wizard is run.

EDIT: You can have the system recognize the drive by inserting it when on standby. And even if you don't go to standby you can have windows to recognize the drive by going to the device manager, clicking on Action menu and "Scan for hardware changes".

The entire process seems to work just fine.
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post #12 of 15
2/26/05 at 4:18am
I've told you.

You have an inspiron, right? Annother easy thing to do would have been to simply buy a D/Dock and a PCI raid card and put lots of desktop hard drives. But it's only supported by latitude/precision.
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post #13 of 15
2/26/05 at 11:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
You have an inspiron, right?
Yes, inspiron 600m (d600). But I was generally referring to d-family notebooks because they have that type of sliding primary hard drive caddy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemex
Annother easy thing to do would have been to simply buy a D/Dock and a PCI raid card and put lots of desktop hard drives. But it's only supported by latitude/precision.
I don't know the real truth about full d/dock compatibility with inpirons. People say it isn't but I heard one guy got it working with his 8500 and since the 600m is essentially d600, it will work.

In any case, I have enough to carry in my back pack. I usually am on the road with the notebook.
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post #14 of 15
2/27/05 at 12:33am
It would seem to me the task you're doing isn't suited to a notebook. Your best and safest bet is to hook up 250GB drives in external USB 2.0 enclosures. You can pick them up for under $150 each. It would be more economical than dealing with smaller 2.5" notebook drives and safer too. I have 4 250gb USB drives on my XPS and 100gb internal. Most people can't say they have a terabyte on their notebook! =) I got all 4 drives and enclosures for $520 before tax at CompUSA this week.
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post #15 of 15
2/27/05 at 12:53am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by roshambo
It would seem to me the task you're doing isn't suited to a notebook. Your best and safest bet is to hook up 250GB drives in external USB 2.0 enclosures...
I think I'll wait for that terabyte optical disk:

Terabyte Disk
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