Hardware wanted

[jrweis]

I am looking for a 3 drive PATA drive cage that takes up 2 5 1/4" slots. I have seen these advertised in the past but can't seem to locate now. Plenty of 3 drive SATA and a few 4 drive PATA but I only have 2 free bays. Can anyone let me know where I might purchase?????????
Thanks,
John
weismantel@metrocast.net

[ambit]

http://www.scsi4me.com/?menu=menu_ide&pid=256&display=MB989AF.htm
They're usually not cheap

[Ice Czar]

and hotswap bays can be the root of data corruption as well

ATA Not So Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/atafaq/)
The following article was written by snn47 to address some of the issues associated with standard ribbon cables and the use of e.g. removable drive racks as an attempt to share some insight into factors that can adversely affect the life or reliability of of desktop Hard Disk Drives. Specifically, issues like why some drives are working in some systems and not in others, the impact of cable routing and why is it that the drive manufacturers always recommend using their own cables (if supplied with the drive).

There is a ton of data in this article, some of which are of interest only for the EE-crowd or else some nerds but there is also some stuff of why sometimes simply rerouting the cable can solve the problems at hand.

to wit, my SX6000 RAID 5 error log when it was running the drives via IDE hotswap bays (now they are directly connected)

11/29/03 08:06:57 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=1305d9b cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/27/03 08:35:49 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4537600 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/26/03 09:11:21 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4536773 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/18/03 17:17:28 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4537e00 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/06/03 19:29:49 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4537180 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/06/03 17:13:35 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4537c80 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/05/03 20:16:51 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=45378c0 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
11/05/03 06:18:52 Warning Retry Drive Retry drive access in Array Array1 (0x00000018) Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3)
11/05/03 06:18:51 Warning Read/Write Error Drive WDC WD400BB-00CFC0 (0x00000002 ch 3) of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4536653 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.
09/03/03 21:56:30 Error Drive Fail Drive 0x00000002 ch 1 failed
09/03/03 21:56:29 Warning Reserve Sector Error occurred in the reserved sector of the drive 0x00000010 ch -1.
09/03/03 21:56:29 Warning Read/Write Error Drive 0x00000010 ch -1 of Array Array1 (0x00000018) has Read Write Error ch3 LBA=4a8b141 cmd=20 Disk Status= 51.

no drive actually failed, and all of them are now fine, sychronizing the array fixed all read \ write errors, that and getting rid of the hotswap bays

pony up the $$$ for good ones ;)
Personally Im now only using SCSI hotswap carriers
(not that IDE is true hotswap, its just what they call em)

[LadyJaqie]

so do like I did...

http://jaqiejean.mine.nu/pics/server/

SCA-u40 enclosure from enlight meets pATA-100 drives.

[Ice Czar]

damn I love duct tape mods :p

thats the parent directory and I didnt see the SCA-u40 enclosure

PS sorry I havent got back to you, saw the PM last night
thanks for the Foxen upgrade :D

plan on dropping a few more tuts soon ;)