SATA Switching Box?

TimMatrix

TimMatrix

TimMatrix

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Joined
21 Jan 2010
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I am looking for a good SATA switching box, preferably, in the form of a 5.25" drive bay size, so can be fitted into any spare DVD/CD slot.

As I am planning to buy a Fractal Define R2 and knowing that it has 8 HDD bays, I intend to use one SATA drive at any one time, with the other SATA HDDs in unpowered mode.

EG.
HDD 1 = Windows 7 - General use
HDD 2 = Linux Mint 8 - General use
HDD 3 = Windows 7 - Flight Simulation X only
HDD 4 = Windows 7 - Experimental and testing new softwares (checks for viruses, etc)

Before I boot the PC up, I like to choose which HDD to power up, without having to remove and plug the selected HDD at any one time. I know you can choose one from the BIOS at boot-up, but this means that all HDDs needs to be powered up, which isn't what I wanted, ie. wasteful energy.

I like the one that I have found, see this link:
http://www.thesataswitch.com/index.htm
but this looks unprofessional on a Define R2, wouldn't it?

Any ideas?
 
Have you thought about a backplane? Something like this? All you then do is just plug in the drive you want to work with and away you go.
 
The amount of energy wasted is rather small.
revosleep is a good idea since although windows/linux will sleep drives, this will prevent anything waking them up and writing to them, handy if you're testing software which may have virii :)
 
wesley said:
just buy massive hard drive and partition them
Click to expand...

Not a good idea, Wesley. Supposing the hard drive 'flunked', the ENTIRE HDD could become unusable.

Keep them separate, loaded with OS, and use it for certain things, are what I consider the best practice. If one HDD fails, simply replace with a new one, and still be able to use the other HDDs, too.

As for RevoSleep, thanks for the advice, but I would PREFER a physical switch, not a software one, where you are assured that no other HDDs are in use, while ONE HDD is in use.

I'll continue to find one. If none, I might have to re-think and maybe make your own switching device. If it comes to the latter, I will post this here (but it may be some while away).

Thanks guys.
 
accod said:
You could always go for one of the normal enclosures with locks for each drive. Lock only the drive you want to use and only that drive will get connected. It also means you can power on multiple drives at the same time if you choose to at a later date.

Something like:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-035-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72
Click to expand...

Thanks but for £81 for the sake of switching to a different HDDs does seem way too expensive. Besides, this unit would NOT fit into a Fractal Define R2 case, as only 2 bays are available. The remaining are "internal" 8 bays. So it is out of the question, I guess.

One more question:
Is it safe to leave all HDDs connected to each SATA connectors (SATA1, SATA2 ...) on the mobo, and leave all but one with no POWER connected? If so, I may consider making some power switches that controls the power supply to certain HDDs.

I await your advice...

Ta!
 
TimMatrix said:
Is it safe to leave all HDDs connected to each SATA connectors (SATA1, SATA2 ...) on the mobo, and leave all but one with no POWER connected? If so, I may consider making some power switches that controls the power supply to certain HDDs.
Click to expand...
Safe but it might not work - I've seen PCs have problems booting if a drive's data cable is connected but the drive has no power.
 
It's personal experience more than anything published. I'm not saying it will fail, just that I've seen it happen on a couple of my own machines when I've forgotten to reconnect an HDD or DVD power cable.
 
He means use vmware instead of HDD4, then you can limit the effect of any bugs and virii. This doesn't solve your original question but it is something to think about.

Have you actually tried booting with the other drives connected but without power? I would check each OS install boots with the other 3 drives not powered, if they all work then go buy a triple pole 4 throw switch.
 
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