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SATA Hot-swap?

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
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Are the WD WD3200JD 320GB SATA drives hot-swappable? I'm wondering if it's safe to turn the device off in Disk Management, and pull it out without turning off my computer. I vaguely recall some CompUSA know-it-all screaming at the customers about how ALL SATA drives are hot-swappable, but I kinda blew it off as BS.
 
No they are not all hot swapable. Hot swap is a "SATA II" spec, which means that it may or may not be present on any SATA drive, but it was not part of the origional SATA spec.
 
StorageJoe said:
No they are not all hot swapable. Hot swap is a "SATA II" spec, which means that it may or may not be present on any SATA drive, but it was not part of the origional SATA spec.
Click to expand...

What about the WD3200JD? Does it qualify? I can't find anything saying it does. Should I just assume it doesn't?

Are there any SATA drives out there which ARE hot-swap? If so, could someone direct me to a list of them, in sizes >300GB?
 
It will work just fine. Almost all SATA drives can tolerate being hot swapped as long as you are using the SATA power connector not the legacy one if the drive has one.

There are different length pins on the power connector to allow certian things to receive power before others and later then other during disconnect. That is way it is important to use the SATA power connector.

As for whether controller supports support hot swapping is another question.
 
draksia said:
As for whether controller supports support hot swapping is another question.
Click to expand...

Incredibly obvious, and it STILL managed to skip my mind - I somehow doubt my BFG mobo's got an integrated hot-swap controller on it. Can someone recommend a 8-port PCI-X SATA controller, preferably with RAID-6? (RAID 5 will do, if you can't find a RAID6 controller, but I prefer double redundancy... Unless someone has a reason I shouldn't?) Yes, 8 port. Gotta leave room for more drives in the future.
 
RAID 6 = http://www.tekram.com/ But we are talking $$ here.

And do you mean PCI-X or PCIe (PCI Express)? Though Tekram has both, be sure to get what you need.

BFG doesn't have a PCI-X motherboard. So I assume you mean PCIe.

==>Lazn
 
Lazn_Work said:
RAID 6 = http://www.tekram.com/ But we are talking $$ here.

And do you mean PCI-X or PCIe (PCI Express)? Though Tekram has both, be sure to get what you need.

BFG doesn't have a PCI-X motherboard. So I assume you mean PCIe.

==>Lazn
Click to expand...

Actually, I was talking about the PCI-X, not PCIe. Been planning on getting a nice little server board. But, good catch - And if you know of a PCIe 1x card, well... I don't need the extra ports yet, but who knows?

$700 for the RAID-6? Yeah, I want it, but not that much.

Actually, come to think of it - I wonder if I could do a software RAID instead - I know it adversely effects the data transfer rate, but does it effect it enough to make a difference when streaming a 6 gig/2 hour video file?
 
TeeJayHoward said:
$700 for the RAID-6? Yeah, I want it, but not that much.

Actually, come to think of it - I wonder if I could do a software RAID instead - I know it adversely effects the data transfer rate, but does it effect it enough to make a difference when streaming a 6 gig/2 hour video file?
Click to expand...

Indeed those are the fastest SATA RAID cards out there, but they are pricy. You could consider RAID 5 with a Hot Spare, then you could lose two drives as long as they both happen far enough apart in time to get the rebuild done.

As for Software, I am sure it would be fast enough to stream 3 GB/Hr. You would need a separate Boot drive though. (if you want redunancy just do RAID 1 for that)

==>Lazn
 
TeeJayHoward said:
Actually, come to think of it - I wonder if I could do a software RAID instead - I know it adversely effects the data transfer rate, but does it effect it enough to make a difference when streaming a 6 gig/2 hour video file?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that should be absolutely no problem. 6 GB / 7200 seconds = 833 KB/s. If it can't deliver, it's entirely the disks' fault.

However, I don't think there's a software raid 6 other than the Linux one. Maybe a second machine with Linux and samba on it? Then record to a network drive. 100 mbit will be plenty for this. Heck, 10 mbit would work ;)

 
I don't mean to hijack your thread, but can anyone suggest a good hot swap unit that fits in a 5.25" drive bay for a SATA hard drive?

I want to switch out between two hard drives. One with linux and one with windows, so I guess I would also need to get an extra tray for it too....
 
ranger0900 said:
I don't mean to hijack your thread, but can anyone suggest a good hot swap unit that fits in a 5.25" drive bay for a SATA hard drive?

I want to switch out between two hard drives. One with linux and one with windows, so I guess I would also need to get an extra tray for it too....
Click to expand...
Vantec EZ 220K or something like that, just browse Newegg for it.

Extremely happy with the six we have here.
 
StorageJoe said:
No they are not all hot swapable. Hot swap is a "SATA II" spec, which means that it may or may not be present on any SATA drive, but it was not part of the origional SATA spec.
Click to expand...

Since when? SATA drives have been hot swappable since the first SATA drives were first released.

Just do a quick google search for info on the Serial ATA spec.

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/hd/serata.htm
 
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