Help with this idea, power switch

[Saggy]

Hi,

I recently am thinking about this mod to power off the mobile rack by switches(toggle type) without opening the case or sliding out all the drives from the rack. After some research I think for a mobile rack that needs 2 molex power, I will use 2 DPST switch, one for each molex.
My question is, is this going to work, I will not flip on/off the switch when the power is on. What happens to sata drives that are connected with no power, I.E., sata cable connected to mobo without power? Do the computer not see them? or will I have problems.
I have my reason/need to do a completely switch off(easier) the whole mobile rack container rather than slide out all the drives.

connect red and yellow wire to a switch for each molex, this will work right?
Will the switch degrade any power that are noticeable, will the drive work fine?

thank you

 

[Ockie]

You should be fine. No power to a drive = not being seen by the computer. If you cut power live, your drive will just drop from the system.

The only thing you want to be careful of is that the switch does not create a spark when it's flipped.

 

[alamone]

Some motherboards might take a bit longer to initialize if SATA ports are connected to a cable but no drive on the other end. I've seen it happen to my microatx AMD based platform, but the intel ICH doesnt seem to mind.

I think some people have also reporting stuttering issues because the system keeps scanning for drives on the ports w/ cables connected to them, particularly in connection with e.g. an esata bracket. It's probably motherboard chipset specific.

You could replace those with mobile racks that have switches for individual drive power built in, but I assume you want to use your existing setup.

 

[Saggy]

Thank you guys for taking an interest in my problem.
I think the spark problem will not be an issue if I don't use the switch when the computer is on, of course I will make sure the switch is good in that regard.

alamone, I already have a mobile rack so if I could avoid buying another rack, hopefully my system will be able to handle that problem, but since ich9R supports hot swap, I think it would be fine, fingers crossed. I was more concerned about weather the switch method will work that is will it be ok to use 2 switches to power on a mobile rack that only requires 2 molex connectors.