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Select or Lock Hard Drives... With a Key
robvasquez writes "Dr. Tom has done a review of a great $16.95 hard disk swapper. This could be a great tool for those of use who dual boot, without bootloaders, or danger to other drives/partitions. Flip the key and power the system up to the OS of your choice.
Sure beats popping IDE cables on and off drives and boards." Some things are so simple its amazing they aren't more common. Totally clever idea.
Did you even read the article? These have nothing to do with anything that would get "ripped out". There is no "yanking one out". It just closes or opens the master/slave jumper on 2 drives depending on where the key is turned. Stop karma whoring, asshole.
http://www.adequacy.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/ 7/21/12632/7944
yeah, tell me about it. My system at home currently loads three operating systems (win98se, win2k, and rh7.1). I installed linux first. After that, I installed win2k which killed lilo. So after restoring lilo, I realized that win2k sucks for games so I loaded win98se so that I could play some older games. win98se destroys both lilo and the win2k loader. So I booted off of the rh7.1 CD again, restored lilo, and booted back into win2k to fix its bootloader..
If you have to hide it from her, you're doing it wrong.
If it supports IDE, it supports cable select. The jumpers are IN THE CABLE.
Gee. I submitted a story, only about it being System Administrator Appreciation Day. Rejected. About HackHU giving into the threat of legal action and going down. Rejected.
And this piece of crap story makes it through?!?
Now that I've gotten a few nicklocks, I can
I honestly can't speak highly enough about them. Of course it hasn't solve all the problems with IRQ conflicts I run into, but it is a step in the right direction and a welcome addition to my home computing environment.
The only site on the Internet that gets it right.
Well yes. I tried to explain VMWare to some of our technical people at work, and they were baffled. :(
But even so, VMWare does have certain limitations because it emulates so many device drivers. Still VMWare is a pretty good solution for testing.
There is also a new product from Connectix that claims to be similar. Unfortunately they don't have a trial, and it's by the same company that screwed me over back in 1995 with RAM Doubler.
Wow! You get to change between *two* hard drives!
Removable hard drive trays are much better. (I use them for the few times I use Windows to isolate it from non-Windows data. MS does not play well with others.)
One big warning on removable hard drive trays...
When you buy them, buy twice as many as you think you will need. Make sure they are all the same brand and model. There are many places that make them and NO standard wiring for them. One brand may not work with the other or even fit in the tray slot. And worst of all, you may never find that brand again!
Not fun when you have three (or more) boot drives and only two drive trays that work on the primary slot.
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
How are you gonna back up your 80 GB drive? Let's see, you could spend thousands of dollars on a tape drive that can handle that much data, or you can spend $200 on another 80 GB drive.
It's a no brainer. Why is anyone buying tape drives any more?
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
Get your soldering iron out and make your own. Use a 4pdt switch and select the master OR SLAVE jumper on each drive. The wiring is left as an exercise to the reader.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
And this is one of the many reasons why SCSI
is better. No master/slave crap or boot limitations. You can set the boot device
ID in the SCSI BIOS to be any connected device.
-Kevin
This thing might work if you just happen to have the right hard drives, but if you *don't*, you'll probably wind up ripping it out of the case with your bare hands, flinging it to the floor, and stomping it to powder.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/01q3/010727/ni cklock-02.html
Quoted:
Although it might have been useful to include a setting that lets you choose both drives, there is probably a good reason why NickLock only allows you to select between single drives or none. For one thing, only a few drives run as slave by default if no jumper mode is set. The majority of drives run in single or master mode by default, and if you use two of them, there is no way to assign the specific drives to master or slave, thus causing a conflict.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
--- This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine. ---
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
I've been using CRU's - http://www.cruinc.com Dataport IV for a few months. Comes as two components - one is a receiving slot that fits into your PC. It hooks up to your IDE or SCSI cable and contains a fan and lock mechanism. The second is a cartridge that holds a 3.5" drive. I have different cartridges containing different OS's. The only drawbacks I've seen is the fan is a little noisy and cartridges are not hot-swappable. (I used to work on Tandem Unix boxes with mirrored hot-swappable disks. You could yank a drive with the root partition and the box would keep running!)
[Insert pithy quote here]
My only complaint about this creative little device is that you would have to reach behind the computer case to turn the switch - something that isn't always so easy to do. How about extending the wires out of the case with a switch that could be positioned elsewhere - right next to the keyboard? OK, maybe not so secure but far more convenient ...
this is just supposed to make it more brainless...
How does this make Windows more brainless? I didn't think that was possible.
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
At the time they were ok for us, we kept multiple OSes on multiple drives, no bootloader, let us run NT, DOS, Linux, Novell without much hassle. They were most useful for file storage. Since the Max HD size was much smaller in 95, we found times when it was useful for us to swap out entire HDs. Overall however the drives were sensitve to shock, and if you weren't careful you could damage the drives quite easily.
Later I was working at a small university who used these in one of their labs, I can't quite say I understand why. They thought it a good idea. Here is where we found the biggest problems. The locks are of the $1.95 Hardware Store variety, and they are mounted in plastic. They may to a reasonable job holding a metal desk droor shut but student regularly would rip them right out the machine.
Worse yet, they are not hot swappable. Which is fine if you remember never to yank them out while the machine is running. It is not fine the one time you yank one out while the machine is running.
Before you buy one of these devices think about rather you really need it and remember:
Bootloaders will allow you to boot most any operating system these days so it is unlikley this is really a good use of such a device.
HDD's are getting bigger all the time, is a 16.95 drive caddy really worth it when you can buy a new HDD for only a few dollars a gigabyte.
What OS do you run? How does it deal with drives and partitions? Sure bioses can autodetect different harddrive types, but will your OS like it? This isn't a problem ofcourse if its your boot drive.
From my experience with these I would say they are a mixed blessing. Certainly bad for a non-controlled or production enviroment. On a personal machine they will work just fine (if you use care.) But I can't see myself buying anything like this in future. As I said, HDDs are far to cheap to make them all that useful, I can usually buy my current HD size+twice whatever I think I might need for under $200.
Just my $0.02
These things have been around for years. Why the spotlight all of a sudden?
--jordan
People, RTFA. Turning the key doesn't make one hard drive available and the other not available -- it just selects which is bootable. So you don't need three drives (i.e. Linux, Windows, Common Files), just two -- both drives are accessible at all times.
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Reading the article (and looking at the pictures), it seems like this thing is really just a jumper switch. In one key position, neither jumper is closed, in the other two positions one of the two is closed.
There has to be more interresting things to do with this. Hmmm... It could switch processor speed if your mobo has jumpers to select such things. It could switch IRQs for old ISA cards that conflict differently in Linux and Windows (hey, it could happen).
Any other ideas? Maybe you could short it across two processor pins to provide a "self destruct" switch. :-)
Greg
You can have access to both drives if you like. What this does is just switch the slave/master-jumbers ... nothing else.
On drive1 it does switch between master and slave.
On drive2 it does the same.
Set up you bios to one harddisk.. no slaves...
Voila...you can switch between the disks, and make the other disk inaccsessible.
Set you bios to one master and one slave.. well, wouldn't be to complicated to guess.
Check out the romtec Trios. It switches between three drives at the push of a button, and has a saftey feature that prevents you from accidentily switching after boot-up. The only downside is you can't access the data on one drive if you boot from another.
... Windows more brainless? I didn't think that was possible.
I don't know how. I don't know what. But Microsoft will find a way. It's called innovation.
Something like this was discussed in the AVS TiVo Forum not to long ago. The idea was that you could have your normal TiVo set of disk(s), and then you could have a second instance of TiVo that you use for programs you want to store long term.
For those that say Lilo isn't that hard to set up, it isn't, but sometimes it's nice to have OS's on their own hard drives, with their own MBR. That way, you can completely blow away the drive and know you're only loosing the OS (and shared data) on that drive.
-------------------------------------------------
In the article I read I found the following quotes:
Sure sounds to me like you can't have both drives operational at the same time.
-------------------------------------------------
I cannot count the number of newbies that kill
their windows partition by installing linux!
this is just supposed to make it more brainless...
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
While this is one use (*cough*), anyone storing confidential records on clients/customers should consider storing all of that information on a tray-mounted drive which is locked in a safe overnight.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
The last time I was in Taiwan (December 1999), almost every new computer had a removable hard drive tray.
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
I've been hot swapping ide drives for quite some time with the cheap (US$10) drive caddies. So far I've only had one drive die and I suspect that was due to other abuse like being dropped.
On a box with a 2.2.* kernel, I've got a small c program that reloads the ide hd info and then I can mount a drive. I use the drives for backup since they are much cheaper than any tape/tape drive combo I could find.
The problem is the hotswap program won't work on 2.4.
If anyone wants the program, email me but its basicly:
exit(ioctl(fopen("/dev/hda", O_RDONLY),HDIO_SCAN_HWIF,atoi(argv[1])));
with error checks.
How many computers support cable select? I've worked with Compaqs and HPs that use it, but will your run-of-the-mill clone assembled from parts support cable select?
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Yup. It's the exact same setup used in research labs, except one is unclassified and one is secret. At the end of the day, you power down, pop out the classified drive, and lock it in a safe.
Nothing new here, move along, move along... :-)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I had a removable hard drive bay, with out the mentioned switch, and needless to say, I took it out.
I could hear the hard drive power up and down over and over again for some strange reason. I had all the cables on nice and snug, but it just didn't seem to like being in a bay.
If the above post is a 5:Informative then I am a Knight who says Nee. It never ceases to amaze me how someone can turn the topic or focus of the post and be called Informative
If you can get any device for $16.95 that includes $6 in parts, youhave either found a vendor who is soon to be out of business or who considers a peanut butter sandwich as fine dining. The issue was dual booting or locking drives, not transporting data, etc between machines. A fine post, but not 5:Informative.
Have a good weekend
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Odd I'm using RC1 of XP combined with XOSL (eXtended operating system loader) and have encountered no problems with XP.
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They're relatively cheap and simple. Once you install the chassis, you can slip any number of hard-drive carriages into your system. This is a GREAT way to reuse old small hard-drives, to try out new OS's and such forth.
At my house, and my father's house, we both have a few stacks of various drives lying around for different things. It beats keeping a few dozen computers around the house (which, of course, we do have anyway...)
One note - be careful about using different brands. While they MOSTLY look similar and mostly use the same Centronics-like connector between chassis and carriage, not all brands are physically mateable. Find a brand that works well, and stick to it. .V / _` (_-<_-<
.\_/\_/\__,_/__/__/
__ __ ____ _ ______
\ V
make world, not war
Stories about switches.
You've got to be kidding me! You think this is new stuff?! These swapout crates have been around forever (for at least a decade, if not longer)
*YAWN*
Poof.
Cute, but I'd rather have four jumpers, two to each drive, so I can just swap master and slave for dual boot...
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
I think they key idea is much better, as you don't have to deal with the time and effort of physically switching drives. Even in a hot-swap setup, this is still better for the drives, as there is less of a chance of the drives getting their contact pins bent, etc. Also, it makes downtime less, as you can just select what you want instead of switching everything around and reconfiguring the BIOS every single time.
-----------------------------------------
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Perversely greped and groped by PowerPenguin
My wife signed up to test WinXP. We installed it on an expendable computer. This computer was set up to dual-boot between Win98 and Linux, with the GRUB bootloader. WinXP is not re-writing the MBR. Ever since the install GRUB comes up unchanged, Linux still boots, but choosing "windows" in GRUB now boots into XP instead of 98. This is the RC1 version of WinXP (build 2505).
Microsoft is possibly insane enough to put in an MBR wiping "feature" but they are definitely not insane enough to put one in at the very last minute. Therefore I state with some confidence that the release version of XP won't have an MBR wipe either.
(By the way, so far I just hate XP. Most of the changes to the user interface annoy me, and the spare computer--a 450 MHz box with a GeForce 2 and 128MB of RAM--isn't quite fast enough to run XP well.)
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
We use swappable drive bays at work. We have a single computer with a dozen hard drives -- each one contains a different test environment (Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinME, Chinese, Korean, etc.)
This is (to me) a lot better than using System Commander, as it's much easier to be 100% that your system is completely plain-vanilla and any weirdness can be directly attributed to your software. It's also a lot smaller form-factor than a room full of systems...
--- egomaniac
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Yes, and on the main NickLock page it says "the function of NickLock can easy be changed in the BIOS system setup to start one harddrive and still be able to reach the other."
You DO have access to both drives. It swaps master/slave, affecting which gets BOOTED.
but a 50p switch from maplin will do the job just fine now someone's let me in on the idea :)
.oO0Oo.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
If you have to have an IDE cable to connect both devices and you can only select one device you can only have one of two devices on that cable working. So instead if you was using filesharing between other operating systems you have now lost that on the one IDE device that isn't selected.
Lets say you have 5 IDE devices you want to use and your motherboard only has two IDE controllers(like most boards). With this board you limited to four IDE devices.
With this your limited to 3 devices using one of these and 2 devices using two of these.
If you have all your IDE devices wired up to this and from it you could select the four IDE devices you wanted to enable.This would really rock when you number of devices is greater then 4. And if you wanted you use a different device you could just boot-down change the settings on it and you wouldn't have to open up the case anymore to switch IDE devices.
That would solve one of my problems. I do have remove hard-drives to transfer some stuff, but that ok. I would like to be able to select what device I want without having to mess with the cabling and jumpers. I used to doing that.
First you stop putting the screws back in the case, then you stop putting the side panel back on all together. I don't leave the side panel on my main computer anymore, so I don't like others using my computer because I'm scared they'll mess with some and short something or gets splashed on the inside of the computer.
Chad
This is a sig.
any questions?
chad
ERROR 404: sig not found
I agree, it wouldn't be that hard, make it a 2 lead cable (like the lights and stuff on your case uses to connect to your motherboard). I've seen this in Data Express SCSI caddies, you can use it to set the SCSI ID.
chris@xanadu:~$ whatis /.
/.: nothing appropriate.
From the NickLock website:
(the function of NickLock can easy be changed in the BIOS system setup to start one harddrive and still be able to reach the other)
Has this turned into Julia Child's kitchen? What is up with all these pots and kettles?
What would have been really nice if you could switch between which hard drive is master and which is slave from this device. That would allow you to run both drives while still being able to select which you want to boot from.
As the article explains, they didn't include that feature due to the different jumper settings on different hard drives. It still would have been a great feature though!
After reading all the comments, and then finally reading the article, I finally see what it is this thing actually does, switches your jumpers between master and "not master". Now, what would be cool is if they could build these things into the already very cool removable drive bays. Basically have a switch on the front of the caddy itself to switch between master and slave.
Remember, I said it here first, so don't try to get a patent or anything. There is a patent on the NickLock, but this probably wouldn't infringe.
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
This sad thing is...
If these units were standard equiptment, this WOULD happen. A LOT.
Stupid, Stupid people. . .
Umm.. I think you meant the other way around. You'll have a lot better luck getting to a Windows partition from Linux then a Linux partition from Windows. Win2000 can recognize the partitions are there but can't read the data off them.
So what program are you using to read your Linux partitions from Windows?
Omega9
chown us base
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
Then, if you want to swap the hard drive, you can turn off the computer and take the drives you want to swap, then don't forget to switch the master/slave jumpers too.
Last time I checked, CS (cable select) was still a valid option. Put both racks on the same IDE controller and just set your enclosed HDDs to CS. Then label the outer racks as master and slave.
Omega9
chown us base
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
Basically you put the drive into a small case, and you pull this case in or out, replacing it with another case with another hard drive in it. This makes booting up on another hard drive extremely simple. Partitioning drives "can" work, but with win2k, windows ME, winXP, it gets too complicated, especially if your constantly breaking stuff when trying to debug a problem that causes a system crash, different hard drives simplifies the process a lot.
As a note of warning to any novice users out there. Make sure you get one with a lock, and make sure you always power down completely before swapping drives.
I work for the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. We've been using swappable hard drives in one of our computer labs for about 8 months now. They were originally installed because a class needed to install and maintain windows as a project. With the swappable HD's, we could use the lab as normal and then switch to the student hard drives right before class. The swappable units appear to cause some problems though.
That lab has a much higher rate of hard drive failure, which may be caused by lack of cooling in the plastic cases.
Also, when machines are turned on or reset, they will occaisionally do nothing but spin the hard drive. No windows startup, no bios beep, nothing. Turning the power supply off and then back on again seems to fix the problem, but it still annoying (and most lab users don't know the fix for it).
Swappable hard drives are a good idea, but they may be one whose time has not yet come.
Mike
SOIS Tech Support Specialist
http://www.sois.uwm.edu
After reading the comments on this article, I think it has proved once and for all the majority of /. readers don't read the fucking article...
--- Can i borrow your Clue-Stick(tm)? I need to go beat a few people with it...
It was a SPDT switch. I connected the "pole" to the signal supply on one of the drives. Then I connected one each of the "throws" to the master/slave signal input on each drive.
forth ?love if honk then
I did a similar thing years ago with 2 525MB drives. I used the (useless) turbo switch to select master/slave on both drives, allowing me to access data on both drives in either configuration. Problem then was that the BOIS didn't auto-detect geometry information, so both drives had to be identical. Worked great, though.
forth ?love if honk then
Okay, cool idea.
But what about those of us who dual-boot and keep MP3's and other shared files on the windows drive? Do I have to buy a third drive on which I can keep shared data?
What was your wiring configuration? All of my cases with Turbo switches just used a dinky single pole, single throw push button for Turbo.
Go down to Fry's and buy a couple IDE hotswap trays and install it in a spare 5.25" bay. Get some spare drives. Pretend your PC is a Nintendo and insert your cartridge (drive) of choice... BeOS, NT, Linux, FreeBSD, DOS 6.22, Darwin, QNX, WinXP, OS/2, Solaris x86, etc...
I dunno, I use Removable Hard Drive Trays, which make more sense for me.. I not only want to be able to switch drives, but move the drives between home/office etc.. I picked up several removable trays for $20 each (canadian even!) and am quite happy with them.
This lock switch seems overpriced at $16.95. Parts would cost you about $6 or less I imagine..
air and light and time and space
If my memory server me you could do this in the late 70's by haveing 2 external harddrives and just turning off the one you didnt want to use. You didnt have to move any thing and worry about a head crash.
I would like to advertise my company as news on the frontpage of slashdot.
How much does it cost, and who should I talk to?
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
When I was running a dual boot system (3 years ago or so) I was using those replaceable hard drive trays. Which work very nice if you have to move the drive to another machine, or have multiable OS's. (More then 2)
until (succeed) try { again(); }
until (succeed) try { again(); }
I had this same idea a couple years back. A friend and i even built one. He used it to switch between NT4 and Windows 95 or 98 i forget. I knew i should have gone for the patent on it... i will just have to make my millions on one of my other insanely great ideas.
I do something similar. tri-boot win2k (work), winme (games), and mostly linux(everything cool).
not as good as I like it. INfact, i've used a removable harddrive system for years, so my dad won't find my pr0^H^H^Hclassified documents.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
We already have VMWare. Transgaming patch is
improved every day - for those sketchy DirectX games.
So why do we need mechanical switch when we can
do the same in software? Yayaya, you can
have like QNX on it. Making partitions is no
black magic, and one is too scared to make one,
the shall not use *NIX, just stick with windows.
No it is not elite attitude - its reality - don't
get a bus if you're not going to haul people.
p.
Thats not neccessarly true, because you would still have access to both drives. So I don' think changing master/slave relationship doesn't give much security.
--Reggie
--Mike
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Answer: When Linux isn't running.
An excellent use for this device, as I see it, is to make your Linux filesystems absolutely inaccessible to Windows.
I have to have dual-boot systems for business purposes, and every time I boot into Windows I cringe, as any malicious Windows program could easily wipe (or subtly modify) my Linux files. This switch would definitely give me peace of mind.
--Mike
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Besides, I can see a lot of problems arising when a certain operating system looks at certain disk expecting it to be the main drive, when it's really the auxiliary drive. Though it's a good, automatic solution, for many of us, this device could be more trouble than it's worth.
LFS. Have you built your system today?
At home I use it to simplify my computer needs by having:
A gaming system
A linux box
And Win2K box for days when I work at home
At work we use them for developmental testing. All we do is slap a new clean HD into the computer. Boot it up. Run our software installation and try to crash it. Rinse and Repeat as needed.
One problem! The removable kits AREN'T STANDARDIZED! So, if you are going to jump into removable hard drive kits, make sure you buy what you need and then some! I've run into some that won't give the HD power til it's locked, others that give power upon being inserted and worse yet....Ones that are poorly ventilated!
All and all...Saves tons of money by not having to shell out da clams for tons of new computers (and upgrading them all once a week...)
LFS. Have you built your system today?
Doh. I mean so-long to your bootloader.
But will you go to jail if you use one as a circumvention device???
-------
We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
The NickLock is meant to simplify the rather annoying process of changing the main hard drive. Usually, to change the hard drive you have to first open the case and change the IDE jumper settings and probably the cabling as well. The typical way around this inconvenience is to use a removable frame system, in which each hard drive that you plan to use is installed into its own frame. After shutting down the computer, the drives can be exchanged freely. However, this solution is not ideal if you have to do this frequently, since hard drives are sensitive to physical movement. In the worst-case scenario, you could cause a head crash if you remove the drive before the read/write heads have been securely parked. In a more harmless scenario, the bearings could get out of whack, resulting in a noisier drive in the idle state.
With the NickLock, you can avoid these kinds of hazards and inconveniences.
Unsettling MOTD at my ISP.
Links:. asp 0 105/msg00179.html r .html
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00011
http://lists.linux-india.org/lists/linux-delhi/20
or the handy mini-howto
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loade
bm :)-~
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Maybe the author is trying to indicate that the device may not work in a single-drive system, which may indeed be the case on older drives (those that won't allow a single HDD to be set to "Master" instead of "single). Maybe he knows some intricate secret of HDD setups that I've missed in many a year of buidling and fixing computers. Maybe he's just a moron, and folks should check out the NickLock website instead of reading this POS review. Guess which one I choose?
Note: Having read the Nicklock website, it appears that it is not much better than Tom's Hardware for explanations. Yeesh.
---
Some folks are claiming that the article is correct, since the drive doesn't allow you to set the "slave" jumper. But 99% of drives out there assume that an open master jumper means slave. If a slave jumper is even present, it's just a holding place. Why use two jumpers, and thereby create a four-state system, when you only need to know on or off?
Another thing that had been bugging me was why there were four connectors. I should have read the nicklock site closer, so that I would have found this picture. Each drive connection has two different size jumpers to accomodate different drive styles. Duh on my part.
All in all, a cool little device. Might pick on up, even if that IS too much for those parts, since I've neither the time nor the inclination to build one myself.
---
The best parts of this are:
- Your controller is the one responsible for all this. All your hard-drive EVER holds is strongly encrypted bits. Way secure.
- Because you have your private key on several diskettes, when the LED is off indicating that you have a hard-drive "off", if you put your disk away then your hard-drive automatically cannot be accessed at all. For "secure" things this is great because you can trust that even if unsecure people use your computer, at best they can only delete the info on your hard-drive, not change it or read it. (Well, they can install keyboard sniffers and so forth, but you know what I mean).
- Get this: how about if the controller automagically starts backing up a hard-drive bit-for-bit whenever it's in the off mode. This just isn't possible while software has access to a hard-drive, and is possibly reading or modifying it. The most awesome backup you can have is a bit-by-bit image of each of your hard-drives. Sure it'll need a little massaging if you need to restore to a hard-drive with different geometry, but you get my point.
Isn't life grand?The best thing is,
any decent kernel can stay entirely in memory. If the controller has decent programmability, you can ask it to start making a backup every night at 12:00, as soon as every hard-drive has stopped being written or modified.
If you do your scripting right, you don't even need to unmount any of your partitions! (Just make sure your system is COMPLETELY idle at the time).
Of course, we are talking SCSI here. Do you call yourselves Geeks?
"Yeah, I have a dual 1.2 gigahertz athlon".
Oh? What's your hard-drive subsystem on that?
"72 gigger!"
IDE?
"That's E-IDE to you! 5400 RPM too!"
Sigh.
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This solution keeps that crap from happening.
Searching for "mobile rack" on pricewatch I see these things for about $15 w/ S&H.
"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
Just thought I would say that the Computer Science Dept here at CU is installing some computers with these type of hard drives in them. The setup is for the operating systems class.
Each monitor/keybord is hooked up to two computers using a switch to choose which computer you are looking at. Then you can check out a couple hard drives and schedule time on one of the computers. The idea is you can setup each of your 2 computers however you want and explore things like making your own server/client programs and so on.
The whole thing is behind a firewall to protect from people messing with the rest of the lab. Its really weird to see a computer where you can just pull its disk right out. The bios is setup so it'll just boot of that drive. They are also thinking about putting linux on a CD-ROM so people without a hard drive can still use it to surf.
I wish I had these when I took OS but we learned on BSD not Win2k like next semester
Yes, the links mentioned above in serial's post are valid and quite informative. Don't listen to the anon coward; the links above have nothing to do with goatse.cx. Give them a few clicks. Aaron, you rule.
As for me, I use CompactFlash cards to quickly swap OSes. Using a simple CF->IDE socket (http://www.pcengines.com/cflash.htm for the goatse.cx weary), and a 3.5" drive bay cover plate, I fashioned somewhat of a CompactFlash card slot. A 64MB CompactFlash card holds QNX, and an 8MB holds a small Linux distribution I hacked together long ago (http://www.phatboydesigns.net/mu2-embedded-2.3.4. tar.bz2). Too bad the IDE spec does not allow you to hot-swap (not that I would with a running box).
Sure, not as flexible, but it has plenty of coolness factor. I've also used the same Linux CompactFlash card in an mp3 player project I messed with last summer.
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And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
Why would you use the master jumpers, if you were to use the slave jumper then the other drive would usually default to master and you would have a dual booting system with both drives accessable.
The only problem I can see with this is when you set no jumpers what happens? I have seen some instances where the first drive on the cable will boot, when the first drive the BIOS ids will boot or when neihter drive would boot.
But would this not work if one never used the neither on option?
Very simple solution for having students need to install their own OSes when learning about Linux or others. Rather in-elegant looking but works. Except I cringe every time I see a student think that large amounts of force are needed to insert the drive.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Yeah, right.
I would like this because I could just take the key out and set it somewhere, and no one could boot linux, just windows... and since windows can't see my linux partitions, I don't have to worry about losing the important stuff.
Just flip the key for the real OS, and leave the other for roomates, strangers who insist on checking their e-mail.
Nothing worse than changing the stereo receiver to play Dreamcast - pretty cool.
I would miss being able to boot right to Windows from Red Hat 7.1, which I hate, but the little things count right. Having a larger hardware list than Mandrake was nice, except it left one device hanging.
Anyways, sounds cool, even for lamers like me. Admins might want them, but if thinkgeek puts this with a window kit - it's mine. Wire it up to light the active drive....
Maybe i went to far...
Get your Unix fortune now!
This seems sort of pointless to me. If your going to use two drive bays, why not have access to both drives? Lilo isn't that hard to setup!
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The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
This is old news- the +folk have been aware of this trick for a long long time, and it certainly cost less that $16.95 [+P&H] - fravia had this idea long ago. makes me scruple the 'inspiration' for this idea a little more critically
saving money simply using the bios?
try deactivating an HD in the bios menu...
it works. yes. just do it. a little time ago i could'nt have lilo load my 15 gigs win partition (ah lba support finally came in).. i just deactivated thethe linux hd from the bios.
win starts.
but obviously you cannot access data from the other hd with explore2fs (and with every other program). this is the same problem the other methods of working deactivating an hd have.
I knew a guy that did this with removable media. He had about 6 operating systems and about two confugurations for each. The HD switch might be more cost effective for two or three OSs, but as the number of configurations rises, the removable media configuration becomes more practical.
Anybody seen my Linux? I thought I left it on the table...
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
How about this: PS2 KVM Switch. The picture's of a two-way, but there's a 4-way also listed. $29, a dollar under your price. However, the cabling is sold separately.
Imagine: Napster v10.0 (Special RIAA Edition) comes out, you install, you run....
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RIAA: How are you Intellectual Property Violator. All your MP3 are belong to us !! HA HA HA !!
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And the familiar grind-grind-grind of many files being deleted.
And then afterward, when your freshly downloaded replacement for Napster 10.0, sideloading WebCancer, decides it wants to permanently adjust your Winsock settings...
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Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
I think it's very stupid to power a drive you won't use in a session. Shouldn't this inersting hdselector be modified to "do not power" the hd you don't use?
Apple iProduct. Non importa cosa sia, lo comprerete!
I want to run several computers... But I don't want to shell out for monitors for everyone... If I had a cable, say 4 long, that hooked to 4 computers and had a switch to change it, I'm sure it'd be inexpensive... I could make money with one. I'd pay like 30$ for one no prob.
God spoke to me
I have been doing this for years now and so have a lot of people I know. Isn't this like common knowledge. Yea wow pullout drives! Never seen those before! Must be new! I can't believe this actually made the front page, while so many other good original articles get rejected. It proves to me once again of how clueless the people are that run Slashdot.
and most hard drives nowadays automatically go for master, couldn't you just put the jumpers on the slave setting and use the key in reverse?
of course, the middle setting would have the same functionality as if you installed it "correctly".
i guess that it's all about what drives you have. if they default to slave, use their recommendations. if they default to master, reverse them.
and the Irishman took the fly in his hands and yelled, "spit it out!"
Over half those posts are about drive cages that have been out for years.
This is just a key that changes the drive jumpers. NO drive cages. No removing anything. Read !!!
It seems to me that since, in effect, this is just a way to remotly set a jumper as open or closed. If one bought more than one of these cool little things (which wouild probably be pretty easy to make), one could also control the slave jumper, and therefor be able to easily use different drive set ups. Some stuff in the CMOS might need to be changed. I would think that these things could also be used for setting other jumpers, say the ones on your mobo.
MAKE YOUR TIME
"COMPUTER: format /dev/hdc -are you sure?"
"USER: duh, was that turn the key left or right?"
Even when I am as drunk as I am now, I know that the drive with all my work on it is OK, because it is unplugged and in a drawer.....
These have been around for at least 5 years. I have used them for about that long. They are great. I use them to boot multiple OS's and to do dik to disk backups, them storing the backup in a safe place. The military has used these for years to lock classified disks in safes.
Neat idea, but my machine lets me select a boot drive by holding down the shift key during boot-up. I get a little pop-up that lets me select from all the installed drives. My MB/BIOS is nothing new or fancy, in fact it's just a cheap Biostar MB. I'd guess this feature isn't that common?
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
The easiest way to switch drives is probably to build a switch that setzs the drives' master/slave jumpers accordingly. This is very easy to build, and once you know your drives' jumper settings it's also completely drive-independent, as long as you've set your BIOS to auto-detect. Costs you about $2 for the switch and a fifteen minutes' work. Chargin $16.95 is ridiculous.
There is absolutely no reason to panic.
- sets the jumpers.
- and fifteen minutes work
- Chargingg
Did I miss anything?There is absolutely no reason to panic.
I've been using one of these for a few years. They are also very nice for taking your disks on the road; you can carry a drive between home and work, or whatever.
One guy I knew used it to enforce discipline on himself. Two drives, the same OS, but one was "work" and one was "play." Play contained chat clients, games, bookmarks to recreation sites, etc. Work contained purely down-to-business stuff. One interesting side effect to this approach (I thought) was the fact that he could have a very insecure install with lots of games and buggy flash plugins and things on the "play" drive, and if it gets compromised or the drive gets munged or whatever he looses nothing important.
Both drives are NOT available at all times. The switch has 3 modes: 1.) Drive "1" set to master (jumper circuit closed,) drive "2" no jumper; 2.) Both drives open jumpers (i.e. no drives;) 3.) Drive "2" set to master, drive "1" no jumper. Last time I checked, and according to the article, a drive with no jumper just sits there. This is what Tom was saying in the FA when he mentioned that old drives may cause strange behavior if they are not jumpered. Sheesh!
-- Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
I have two machines on my home network, both of them have removable IDE drives. I swap between Linux, WinNT, and Win2000. I find it very convenient, and have recommended this technique to people who I work with.
I develop for several OS's, but prefer Linux. When I need to run Win2000 and VisualC++ I just slide in the Win2000 drive. I have several partitions on the SCSI drives, which I can share with Windows {Using a VFAT partition}.
I agree that this is not exactly leading edge news. But it is a useful technique none the less.
Michael A. Uman
Sr Software Engineer
softwaremagic.net
Michael A. Uman
Sr Software Engineer
softwaremagic.net
Now i can let others use my machine with my porn locked up safe.
I mean, what happens when you turn the key when the system is still running?
How does it work anyways, does ist work with full ata 100?
ok, I didn't bother to read the article...
maddjn
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Plus it runs EVERYTHING in windows unlike wine
nope - it doesn't (AFAIK) run games, because directx is not supported (yet).
but I like it, runs quite well for checking some things out, running flash animations and making screenshots of BSODs... (did that...)
maddjn
--EOF--
There're other competing products out there... more souped up verions...
www.sentrytech.com.sg