Removable HD Trays

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thunder9
  • Start date Start date
Hey Thunder9!

The way you want to use these removable drives, it seems to me you should
have Only One plugged in at a time.

Each one should have a Primary Dos Partition plus whatever other partitions
you want on that hard drive. Then Format each partition, install your
desired OS and your desired software programs.

Set them all aside and only plug in the particular one you wish to use.

As I said before, if you plug them all in at the same time, one will grab
"C" for its Primary Dos Partition, the second will grab "D", etc., and you
will have a real problem. I do not believe you can "isolate" or "insulate"
them from each other, except by leaving the ones you are not using on the
shelf.

Now I could be wrong, but think it over before you get further involved.

If I am wrong I will be glad to read a polite specific explanation of "why".
Click to expand...

If I use multiple drives, each "set" will be considered "one system of
drives" and will be totally isolated from the other "set". So while
one set consists of drives D1 and D2, another set may consist of
drives D3, D4, and D5, while another set consists of a single drive
D6. In this case, drives D1, D3, and D5 each contain their own
operating system.

Regards,
Thunder9
 
Hi Thunder9!


Don't you believe in using an AntiVirus software program, and a Firewall
software program?

You certainly should install both of these on a "
download-anything-don't-care-OS machine".
Click to expand...

Sure I will. But that doesn't really protect me much if I download
something and install it. By running *any* executable on my system, I
basically give it full rights to do whatever it wants.
I would install both on all of your hard drives. It is just good practice
if you plan to use the Internet.

Also I do not believe a trojan that takes over one removable hard drive
would be transferred to another hard drive if only one is plugged in at a
time.

Hey Timothy, am I correct about this?
Click to expand...

This is correct. This is in fact my primary purpose for doing it this
way... so I can have my fun downloading system without compromising
the integrity of my primary system.

Regards,
Thunder9
 
alvin york said:
Also I do not believe a trojan that takes over one
removable hard drive would be transferred to another
hard drive if only one is plugged in at a time.

Hey Timothy, am I correct about this?
Click to expand...



I refrain from predicting what viruses will or can
exploit. Eventually, they seem to exploit everything.
Thunder9 seems to be intending to put more than
one hard drive in at a time, though, perhaps using
one for media data that could be used at other times
by other systems drives. That seems to be why he
wants more than one caddy bay. And that could be
a hiding place for a virus that could infect more than
one system drive.


*TimDaniels*
 
Thunder9 said:
If I use multiple drives, each "set" will be considered "one system of
drives" and will be totally isolated from the other "set". So while
one set consists of drives D1 and D2, another set may consist of
drives D3, D4, and D5, while another set consists of a single drive
D6. In this case, drives D1, D3, and D5 each contain their own
operating system.
Click to expand...


I hope the labels don't come off! :-)


*TimDaniels*
 
Thanks for the well thought out post that is very helpful. One point
I may not have made clear is that I won't have a permanently mounted
hard drive. My purpose for easy swap is to have 3 or 4 different
machines in one. A multimedia center. A gaming machine for when my
son comes over every other weekend. A download-anything and
I-don't-care-if-it-has-a-virus machine. And a small reliable
Quicken/finances machine. They should all be isolated from each other
so changes to one won't fubar the others. Of course, that will make
critical updates a pain in the arse, but such is the price to pay for
the increase in security and reliability.
Click to expand...

I have this system set up myself, five caddies with diferent operating
systems on them (NT4, Win 98, Win2000 pro, Win XP pro and Linux). I used
them while teaching myself networking, very useful to set one up then
power-down swap drives and then set the same settings on another operating
system.

Just remember IDE drives are NOT hot swappable!

Never had a problem with heat, but then they are only 5400 rpm drives.

Just remember to buy enough caddies at the start of the build as I had to
change all the caddies when I wanted to add another Disk and couldn't get
the same caddy.

Adam S
 
Adam S said:
I have this system set up myself, five caddies with
diferent operating systems on them (NT4, Win 98,
Win2000 pro, Win XP pro and Linux). I used
them while teaching myself networking, very useful
to set one up then power-down swap drives and
then set the same settings on another operating
system.

Just remember IDE drives are NOT hot swappable!

Never had a problem with heat, but then they are
only 5400 rpm drives.

Just remember to buy enough caddies at the start
of the build as I had to change all the caddies when
I wanted to add another Disk and couldn't get the
same caddy.
Click to expand...


It sounds, though, that you had only one bay/tray
to slide the caddys into, i.e. you could install and use
only one caddy at a time. That would make the
variability in cooling requirements much lower than
for a system that used up to 4 caddys at a time.


*TimDaniels*
 
Adam S said:
...I have two caddies.

The top one is used for the different system disks
and there is another one beneath it for swapping
data disks, (well I had to use the original caddies
for something).
Click to expand...


Were fans built into the caddys? If so, how
many fans and how many fan holes? (In a freebie
caddy that came with one of my HDs, there were
(2) 20mm fans and 3 holes, but all three holes had
an air filter over them.)


*TimDaniels*
 
Hi Timothy!


At the university was the OS XPHome or XP Pro, and if so, was a license
required for each removable rack using this system?
 
Hi Timothy!

I like a guy like you who has enough self-confidence that he is not ashamed
to admit he doesn't know all about everything!

Evidence of such common sense makes me even more confident of the quality of
what you do recommend.

This is intended as a compliment.
 
Hi Thunder9!

I sure hope your idea works for you.

It is much too completed for my tiny brain to comprehend.

That was why I never placed a Primary Dos Partition on any of my removable
rack. I did use the same size and number of partitions on it as on my main
fixed hd. I used it to copy back any data lost or corrupted, or after a
reformat of a partition on the fixed hd.

I just used them as a backup to recopy info
 
alvin york said:
Hi Timothy!
Click to expand...


Hi, Alvin! Hey, I'm just a student here, sharing
what I know, hoping to learn what I don't know.
That's what Usenet is for (usually). :-)


*TimDaniels*
 
"alvin york" asked:
At the university was the OS XPHome or XP Pro,
and if so, was a license required for each removable
rack using this system?
Click to expand...


The OS is Windows 2000. I don't know about
the licensing, but I'd imagine there would be an
academic site license. Whether it's per-tray (i.e.
per systems hard drive), I also don't know. If
I find out, I'll post.


*TimDaniels*
 
Thunder9 said:
This is my first home built system so please be kind...

I'd like to know if there are any issues to consider with using those
removable drive trays so you can pop out your IDE drive from the
front?

I'm sure I want to get a full tower (maybe something like an Antec
1240) that has 6 or 7 5.25" bays. Since I want my system to be
multi-purpose, I want to be able to easily swap out the hard drives
from the front. I think either 2, 3, or 4 of the bays will be
dedicated to swappable trays. I'll be using XP Professional with 7200
RPM drives. Hot swappable is not necessary (at least for the
foreseeable future).

Any advice on removable drive trays would be appreicated. Does the
case that I buy have to support it in any way shape or form? Maybe
this is just really a no brainer?

Thanks,
Thunder9
Click to expand...

you want to be able to cold-swap your drives? why? how hard is it to pull
the side off you machine?
to do this you'll need hotswappable housings...
 
you want to be able to cold-swap your drives? why? how hard is it to pull
the side off you machine?
Click to expand...

If one swaps drives frequently, it will pay in time and wear adt tear
on the cabling, to use pull-out trays, rather than manually swapping
the drives in the case.
 
alvin york said:
Hi Adam!

Did you plug in all the removable racks at the same time or just one at a
time depending on OS you wanted to use?
Click to expand...

I have one OS drive plugged in at a time, the rest are stored in the desk
draw.

Adam S
 
Timothy Daniels said:
Were fans built into the caddys? If so, how
many fans and how many fan holes? (In a freebie
caddy that came with one of my HDs, there were
(2) 20mm fans and 3 holes, but all three holes had
an air filter over them.)
Click to expand...
There is a small (30mm?) fan built in the back of each caddy. I have no
other fans in the system except the CPU and PSU fans, I don't appear to have
overheating problems.

Adam S
 
Gary Tait said:
If one swaps drives frequently, it will pay in time and wear adt tear
on the cabling, to use pull-out trays, rather than manually swapping
the drives in the case.
Click to expand...

Agreed. We use these on our test machines at work, to provide a range of
different OSs to test on. Swapping them by hand would be a nightmare in that
scenario.

Sadly only the drive trays at my place of work are Lian-Lis - it'd be nice if
all the cases were too, rather than ancient grubby beige boxes...

InsAnimal
 
you want to be able to cold-swap your drives? why? how hard is it to pull
the side off you machine?
to do this you'll need hotswappable housings...
Click to expand...

Actually the case was going to be hard to get into, sandwhiched
between a desk and a digital piano. But then I decided to put wheels
on the case. Now your suggestion is very good... I can at least get
by for a while without cold swap bays until I figure out exactly what
I need...

Regards,
Thunder9
 
It turns out that for some courses at the university,
WinXP Pro is installed on the students' removable
hard drives. The lab technician said that the licensing
was handled with a single license with the price
taking into account the total of the number of full-
time instructors plus staff members multiplied by
about $35. The price is not related to the number
of machines in the lab, and the individual HDs don't
care which physical machine they're plugged into.


*TimDaniels*
 
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