Removable hard drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry

We are trying to use removable hard drives that we can
swap between machines in order to move large files be
tween computers. We can remove the drive and put it in
other computer, but the operating system doesn't
recognize it so we can't access it, even though Device
manager says its there and runnning perfectly.

What is the solution?
 
There are some details missing, but I'm assuming you're
pulling an IDE drive out of a system without powering it
off, and then plugging it into another system on-the-fly
(not powering it off).

If this is the case, then your problem is expected. I'd
even say I'm suprised the device manager sees it. IDE is
not designed to be hotplugged. IDE controller search for
connected devices when the system posts. After the post
process it it not advisable to plug something in. Serial
ATA specs are supposed to allow hot plug capabilities, but
I'm not sure if that is a feature for that standard, or if
it's a requirement. If it's just a feature, then not all
drive and controller manufacturers may offer that
capability.

I'd recommend moving to a USB2 or Firewire (external)
solution. These are designed for hotplug. This does assume
you're using a fairly new Operating system (WinME/2K/XP).
You can probably get it to work under Win98, and maybe
Win95, but these aren't optimal for this kind of solution.

Also, if you move data frequent enough, and the systems
aren't too far apart, why not just buy a network card and
a cable, and transfer data over a network?
 
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