Hot-Swapping IDE Drives?

Patman asks: "I've recently taken a new job where I'll need to be making drive images and such for quite a few IDE drives - say a few a day. I need the ability to 'hot-swap' IDE drives into a running Linux or Windows system. The systems that I'm using are fairly standard IBM desktop PCs, I've found references on Google to IDE->USB converter cables and IDE->USB converter boxes. Does anyone have experience with those? Some come with drivers for Windows - has anyone used them under Linux? Does the mass storage USB code deal with them accurately? Barring that, does anyone have any other ideas? External hot-swapping would be ideal, although an internal solution would be doable, too."

Comments

Windows XP has an option for Firewire.

[Futurepower(R)]

Windows XP has an option for not caching Firewire writes. You can then just remove and reconnect the drive without any other adjustment and without data loss. If you have audio on, there is a tone when the drive is connected or disconnected.

Re:I tried that once....

[schapman]

theres a reason not to do this... If you look at SATA, one of the reasons its safe to hot-swap is that on the power connector, the pins are different lengths. This way, when u connect/disconnect, you wont have shorts happening. I think its the ground connector on the power cable that connects first, disconnects last... Old school PATA devices dont have this, so every time you connect/disconnect while running... you have the risk of shorting and blowing your drive/MB