Hot swap Query

SoildSnake · 16 Apr 2012 at 19:22

I have a Hot Swap SATA/SAS Backplane (SATSASBAY3BK) which says it is a hot swap compatible. The manual and it says do NOT turn off the drive when the PC is on, so how can that be hot swap compatible? I have used a program called "hot swap" to disable/power down the drive and then turn it off but i encountered errors with that drive so i am sceptilbe about hot swapping/turning off a drive when powered on (i got a error message in Hard Disk Sentential saying something like "there were 200 communication errors when connecting to this device). I have AHCI enabled and if it makes any difference the disk in question is an encrypted

Basically i want the option to "disconnect device" like when you connect a flash drive or external hard drive. How can i safely turn off the drive without powering down, what program to use or physical methods to ensure no damage is done to my drive since there is a lot of important info on there (of course i backup). Should i tweak the drives setting in windows like under the "policies" tab? Thanks

SoildSnake · 17 Apr 2012 at 19:02

zeegy · 18 Apr 2012 at 14:45

I believe the backplane is hot swap 'compatabile', you would still require a Sata/Sas controller that allows/supports hot-swapping for this to work.

What SAS / SATA controller are you using to attempt this?

SoildSnake · 18 Apr 2012 at 19:35

I have the asus p5q pro turbo mobo and have intel RST installed and i would use "hot swap" to power down the drive so would this safely power down the drive and allow me to turn that drive off in the dock.

Does it matter if it is a system encrypted disk (id boot into another operating system then power off the drive)

SoildSnake · 22 Apr 2012 at 14:55

SoildSnake · 26 Apr 2012 at 18:06

mrk · 26 Apr 2012 at 19:07

No need to tweak anything in the policies tab if you have AHCI enabled in the BIOS and your SATA controller(s) support hotswapping.

Your mobo has 2 ports that support hotswapping which are on teh Silicon Image controller so if you connect to that, have AHCI enabled for the SI controller in the BIOS then there shouldn't be any issues hotswapping.

There's no need to "safely remove" a fully AHCI compatible drive. I just plug my backup drive into the PC once a week (Although I have a different mobo and all my ports are AHCI on the Intel ICH10R controller) and unplug when the backup run finishes.

I don't think Intel RST driver will provide any hot swap capability for you since your swap controller is the Silicon Image one. May want to confirm that but by the looks of it the RST driver just provides RAID functionality on your mobo on the Intel ports.

SoildSnake · 27 Apr 2012 at 16:00

So my mobo DOES support it but only TWO ports right? How do i figure out which ones i was under the impression that the five sata port i have were all the same; using the Intel ICH10R controller and the other two are for drive Xpert which i doubt are hot swappable. Thanks

mrk · 27 Apr 2012 at 16:04

Unless I looked up the wrong mobo!

SoildSnake · 27 Apr 2012 at 16:32

Sorry i just want to make sure i dont screw up any of my hard drives! So ANY of the normal five sata ports on my Asus P5q Pro Turbo are hot swap compatible? And since i have AHCI i can turn them off after using something like "HotSwap"?

Btw just noticed that the Silicon Image ports you reffered to are actully for the drive Xpert ports which means my mobo can only do hot swap on that SINGLE port as in the first drive Xpert port?

mrk · 27 Apr 2012 at 17:05

Looking around on other forums where similar question was asked about the same mobo, that appears to be the case yes.

AHCI hotswap capable drives and controllers should not show up in the safely remove hardware dialogue in Win7 either, if they do then the right drivers have not been installed.