Not for those who care about standards.
There are two sides to this standards business. One is the functional
specification which states how a device is to operate. The other is
the design specification which states how a device is to be built.
We accept your comments regarding the fact that removable bays do not
meet current design specs. However if the design that is implemented
by the removable bay is functionally compliant, then that is good
enough for the typical user who is not pushing the envelope.
Do you know for a fact that the Directron Kingwin KF-2x series of
removable bays is not functionally compliant? How about the Enermax
352?
I talked with the Product Manager at Maxpoint, which is the US
distributor of Enermax products. He personally uses the 352 and he
reports that he has seen *no* problems with it. I discussed briefly
this issue of ATA non-compliance, and he asked me if I had any direct
evidence that the 352 was not *functionally* compliant. He said the
engineers at Enermax are not idiots and they abviously took ATA
compliance issues into consideration. It would be financial suicide to
introduce a product with an alternative design that failed to live up
to the functional specifications required by the disk drive industry.
Where are all the warnings about how such devices are not functional?
I have seen none. Just because someone had trouble with their rig does
not mean there is something functionally wrong with those units I have
discussed.
Hope you have ordered the cast iron shorts too.
My invoice from Directron has a statement added that if the 352 does
not function as advertised, I can return it for a full cash refund. In
return I promised them that I would evaluate the unit and let them
know how it performs.
I checked with the Product Manager to make sure there were no gotchas
hidden in the woodwork. I went thru the scenarios I planned on using
to make disaster recovery archives. He said that the unit is designed
to be straightforward in its use - no undocumented "error codes" like
with the other methods.
And you get to wear the consequences
of flouting the ATA standard too.
What consequences? I have been flouting the ATA *design* standard for
a long time now and there have been *no* consequences. I cannot help
it if some others get burnt using substandard parts. I am using
top-line parts.
Not my idea of a viable approach to
something as important as backup thanks.
If the backup fails, I will know about it, in which case I can always
hook the target drive up directly to the IDE connector.
You dont have to do that with any of the modern imaging apps.
That's what I had to do with Acronis True Image. After I got done
configuring the disk copy operation, it rebooted the computer into the
same kind of DOS shell that CHKDSK uses when Windows detects a disk
problem.
And you get to wear the consequences
of flouting the ATA standard too.
What consequences functionally are there?
And you have no way of knowing if that would result in fangs in the
arse when you need it most, just like with last time that happened.
The last time was caused by a defective motherboard. How was I to know
that Epox MBs had electrlytic capacitor problems. I got almost 6 full
years out of that system, so it's not as though I am out anything.
And because I kept a disastor recovery archive on the shelf I was able
to recover with a minimum of effort, thanks to Windows' IPU.
So I am not in such a bad condition as you make it out to be.
You dont know it will be hiccup free when you
need it, just like it wasnt with the previous system.
I will be watching carefully. The other system died of old age. This
is a completely new system.
One reason why I like to clone a disk to make a backup - and not build
an image file - is that I can inspect the backup using the standard
Windows tools. If the backup has no problems, then on the shelf it
goes.
--
Million Mom March For Gun Confiscation
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/mmm.html
Liberal
A person so open minded their brains have fallen out.