Hot swappable SATA or not?

A

Astra

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
208
I recently got some sort of external sata caddy.

It says if my motherboard supports hot swappable SATA, I can just put a HD in and remove it whenever I want to.
The motherboard is quite old Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939
It has onluy 2 SATA slots, so I bought PCI card with 2 additional SATA slots and plugged the caddy into it.
I read motherboard manual and didn't find anything about hot swappable SATA feature. Does it mean my motherboard doesn't support it?
How can I check whether it supports hot swapping of SATA HDs?

Or..because I use PCI card, I should find out whether a SATA controller on this card supports hot swap of SATA HDs?

Thank you in advance,
A.
 
Or..because I use PCI card, I should find out whether a SATA controller on this card supports hot swap of SATA HDs?
Click to expand...

That's the ticket although I usually see hotswap advertised on the PCIe cards, yours may.
 
Old Hippie said:
I buy the cheapos also but I've never had one with a VIA chipset.

AAR, it's not advertising hotswap.
Click to expand...

:(

What happens if I insert caddy and take it out of the computer when the computer is up and running?
 
I mean. I tried it.
Just insert it when the system is up. It would be recognised withing 10 seconds. I would use it then pull out.
I repeated it a few times but I don't know whether it makes any damage or has a potention of damaging...HD? data? pci card? motherboard?
 
Astra said:
I mean. I tried it.
Just insert it when the system is up. It would be recognised withing 10 seconds. I would use it then pull out.
I repeated it a few times but I don't know whether it makes any damage or has a potention of damaging...HD? data? pci card? motherboard?
Click to expand...

Sounds like hotswap is working to me.

If it wasn't, the drives wouldn't be seen 'till reboot time.

I doubt it'll do any harm with repetition.

PS....Just so ya know, I have done this with my cheapo PCI SATA cards with no adverse effects but I didn't want to OK it for someone else......just in case mine experience was a fluke. ;)
 
Does the card give you a configuration utility? Typically, some set of keys need to be pressed at startup. If not, then its most likely on by default, since its a discrete controller card, and AHCI is a major component of SATA.
 
enginurd said:
Does the card give you a configuration utility? Typically, some set of keys need to be pressed at startup. If not, then its most likely on by default, since its a discrete controller card, and AHCI is a major component of SATA.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, it has RAID config. utility. I installed drivers only, since I don't need RAID.
 
However, there is one thing that worries me.

With USB, when you want to disconnect device you have an icon where you tell which one to Safe Remove.
What about hot swappable SATA HD? I have no means to disconnect it via s/w.
 
What about hot swappable SATA HD? I have no means to disconnect it via s/w.
Click to expand...

I used a little program called Hotswap on my older boards but beware.....it showed all my drives as hot swappable.

If it's still like that, just keep track of the letters of your removable drives.

PS....it's not advertising support for VIA chipsets.
 
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