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#1
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How swap drive carriage?
Hi All,
Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? Many thanks, -T |
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#2
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How swap drive carriage?
T wrote:
Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? How would the drives slide out? You would have to remove the side panel. Well, at that point, just unscrew the 2 screws holding the drive in the internal cage and pull the connectors from the drive. That only works if the drive cage has the drives slide in sideways to the case. If the cage is fore-to-aft of the case, usually there are cables or components that make difficult the sliding backward of the drive out of the cage. I usually find the fore-to-aft oriented drive cages (part of the case) require me to move and even disconnect cables or angle out the drives to get around cables or components. That's why a full tower is often handy as its depth is greater to have more room between the cage and any cables or components behind the cage. Else, an internal cage that faces sideways lets you remove the 2 screws on the back side (the only side you can usually get to when affixing the drives into the cage) and slide the drive out the side where there is nothing to obstruct their removable (other than the side panel which you already had to remove). If by "internal" you meant the standard drive bay mounted hotswap units, there are lots of them. I'm surprised you couldn't find one. There are some that have a tray mounted on the drive that slides into the cage. Some are trayless (you slide the bare drive into the slot). http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=157 http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=163 Also, does "supports USB3" mean the cage uses USB3 to connect to the drives slid into it? Or do you want a hotswap cage that provides USB3 ports (to connect other devices)? If the latter, here's an example: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=158 |
#3
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/01/2017 06:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
T wrote: Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? How would the drives slide out? You would have to remove the side panel. Well, at that point, just unscrew the 2 screws holding the drive in the internal cage and pull the connectors from the drive. That only works if the drive cage has the drives slide in sideways to the case. If the cage is fore-to-aft of the case, usually there are cables or components that make difficult the sliding backward of the drive out of the cage. I usually find the fore-to-aft oriented drive cages (part of the case) require me to move and even disconnect cables or angle out the drives to get around cables or components. That's why a full tower is often handy as its depth is greater to have more room between the cage and any cables or components behind the cage. Else, an internal cage that faces sideways lets you remove the 2 screws on the back side (the only side you can usually get to when affixing the drives into the cage) and slide the drive out the side where there is nothing to obstruct their removable (other than the side panel which you already had to remove). If by "internal" you meant the standard drive bay mounted hotswap units, there are lots of them. I'm surprised you couldn't find one. There are some that have a tray mounted on the drive that slides into the cage. Some are trayless (you slide the bare drive into the slot). http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=157 http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=163 Also, does "supports USB3" mean the cage uses USB3 to connect to the drives slid into it? Or do you want a hotswap cage that provides USB3 ports (to connect other devices)? If the latter, here's an example: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=158 Something that fits into a front panel 5-1/4 bay. The carriages need to be something to protect the drives from the user when he pulls them out and sticks them in his glove compartment. I have these currently from CRU, but I am stuck with a bunch of drives that won't hot swap. I tested them with a USB 3 adapter and they work fine. So USB 3 out the back to a motherboard header. |
#4
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How swap drive carriage?
T wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: T wrote: Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? How would the drives slide out? You would have to remove the side panel. Well, at that point, just unscrew the 2 screws holding the drive in the internal cage and pull the connectors from the drive. That only works if the drive cage has the drives slide in sideways to the case. If the cage is fore-to-aft of the case, usually there are cables or components that make difficult the sliding backward of the drive out of the cage. I usually find the fore-to-aft oriented drive cages (part of the case) require me to move and even disconnect cables or angle out the drives to get around cables or components. That's why a full tower is often handy as its depth is greater to have more room between the cage and any cables or components behind the cage. Else, an internal cage that faces sideways lets you remove the 2 screws on the back side (the only side you can usually get to when affixing the drives into the cage) and slide the drive out the side where there is nothing to obstruct their removable (other than the side panel which you already had to remove). If by "internal" you meant the standard drive bay mounted hotswap units, there are lots of them. I'm surprised you couldn't find one. There are some that have a tray mounted on the drive that slides into the cage. Some are trayless (you slide the bare drive into the slot). http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=157 http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=163 Also, does "supports USB3" mean the cage uses USB3 to connect to the drives slid into it? Or do you want a hotswap cage that provides USB3 ports (to connect other devices)? If the latter, here's an example: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=158 Something that fits into a front panel 5-1/4 bay. The carriages need to be something to protect the drives from the user when he pulls them out and sticks them in his glove compartment. I have these currently from CRU, but I am stuck with a bunch of drives that won't hot swap. I tested them with a USB 3 adapter and they work fine. So USB 3 out the back to a motherboard header. A caddy (into which the drive is mounted for a hotswap bay) won't provide much protection to a bare bare drive, and that would only be for a caddy enclosure rather than a slim caddy that just fits on the drive for sliding into the bay. We have hotswap bays that don't even need a caddy: the bare drive slides into the cage. Plus I've used USB-attached docks into which the bare drive gets inserted. No problems handling the bare drives. What your drive-toting customer might need is a carry case for the bare drive (or even the caddy-ed) drive if they're tossing it in the glove box (it's big enough to fit a drive?). https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GKTPR9 If the bare or caddy-ed drive is too small (it moves around in the carry case) then wrap it in anti-static bubble wrap (the stuff that comes around daughtercards in retail packaging, like for video cards). I have to wonder why the drive(s) won't work when attached to a SATA mobo port but will work when connected to a SATA-to-USB adapter. Is this an old SATA drive that has a header for a jumper? Yep, some [old] SATA drives have a jumper block. https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebas...atadesktopjump Perhaps the drive is set to a transfer speed the onboard SATA controller does not support. While you think the drive may be set too high for the controller, some old drives could be jumpered to only support SATA 1.0 which the 2.0 controllers didn't support. |
#5
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/02/2017 12:07 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
T wrote: VanguardLH wrote: T wrote: Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? How would the drives slide out? You would have to remove the side panel. Well, at that point, just unscrew the 2 screws holding the drive in the internal cage and pull the connectors from the drive. That only works if the drive cage has the drives slide in sideways to the case. If the cage is fore-to-aft of the case, usually there are cables or components that make difficult the sliding backward of the drive out of the cage. I usually find the fore-to-aft oriented drive cages (part of the case) require me to move and even disconnect cables or angle out the drives to get around cables or components. That's why a full tower is often handy as its depth is greater to have more room between the cage and any cables or components behind the cage. Else, an internal cage that faces sideways lets you remove the 2 screws on the back side (the only side you can usually get to when affixing the drives into the cage) and slide the drive out the side where there is nothing to obstruct their removable (other than the side panel which you already had to remove). If by "internal" you meant the standard drive bay mounted hotswap units, there are lots of them. I'm surprised you couldn't find one. There are some that have a tray mounted on the drive that slides into the cage. Some are trayless (you slide the bare drive into the slot). http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=157 http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=163 Also, does "supports USB3" mean the cage uses USB3 to connect to the drives slid into it? Or do you want a hotswap cage that provides USB3 ports (to connect other devices)? If the latter, here's an example: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=158 Something that fits into a front panel 5-1/4 bay. The carriages need to be something to protect the drives from the user when he pulls them out and sticks them in his glove compartment. I have these currently from CRU, but I am stuck with a bunch of drives that won't hot swap. I tested them with a USB 3 adapter and they work fine. So USB 3 out the back to a motherboard header. A caddy (into which the drive is mounted for a hotswap bay) won't provide much protection to a bare bare drive, The CRU caddies can be dropped from six feet on to concrete. and that would only be for a caddy enclosure rather than a slim caddy that just fits on the drive for sliding into the bay. Better look up the insertion rating on your connectors. CRU is over 100,000. We have hotswap bays that don't even need a caddy: the bare drive slides into the cage. This gives me hives. CRU has on of these too, but not on your life will I let a orangutan grab one of these things after walking across a carpet and toss it around his truck cab. These drives have exposed circuitry to shock the dickens out of. Plus I've used USB-attached docks into which the bare drive gets inserted. No problems handling the bare drives. You will quickly wear out the connectors. What your drive-toting customer might need is a carry case for the bare drive (or even the caddy-ed) drive if they're tossing it in the glove box (it's big enough to fit a drive?). CRU sells these by the gross. They are a carrying bag for disk drives. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GKTPR9 If the bare or caddy-ed drive is too small (it moves around in the carry case) then wrap it in anti-static bubble wrap (the stuff that comes around daughtercards in retail packaging, like for video cards). I have to wonder why the drive(s) won't work when attached to a SATA mobo port but will work when connected to a SATA-to-USB adapter. That one interest me too. The chipset (C236) may have something to do with it too. But I have another server out with the identical motherboard and bios rev, and it does not have this issue. But it uses different backup drives. Is this an old SATA drive Nope. It is relative new: Western Digital HDD WD20NPVZ 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Mobile 8M Cache Internal 2.5inch Blue Bare All five of them did this. that has a header for a jumper? Yep, some [old] SATA drives have a jumper block. https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebas...atadesktopjump Perhaps the drive is set to a transfer speed the onboard SATA controller does not support. While you think the drive may be set too high for the controller, some old drives could be jumpered to only support SATA 1.0 which the 2.0 controllers didn't support. The drives work fine, until you unmount them. Then inserting them back into the sleave crashes the OS. If you boot up with the sleave empty, then insert the drive. Down you go. SATA = ACHI or RAID, don't matter. |
#6
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/02/2017 08:29 PM, T wrote:
That one interest me too. The chipset (C236) may have something to do with it too. But I have another server out with the identical motherboard and bios rev, and it does not have this issue. But it uses different backup drives. And the issue does not reproduce on a Z87 chipset motherboard. Acts just like usb 3 |
#7
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How swap drive carriage?
T wrote:
The CRU caddies can be dropped from six feet on to concrete. "TrayFree bays make adding drives effortless. It's as easy as opening the door, sliding the drive in, and closing the door. No screws, no trays. It just works." So the case goes with the drive when removed from the cage. Okay but I don't how that differs from removing the drive from a trayless cage and putting the drive into a transport case to effect the same protection. https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx...-3q/?tab=specs Don't see anything there are about drop protection. I looked at the online manual and all it says about drive installation is "Slide the drive in from the front of the carrier.". The drive attaches to a "drive carrier" using screws. Well, that is not you using shock-absorbing mounts to install the drive inside the case. You attach a hard carrier onto the drive using hard screws and the drive+carrier slides on hard rails to push onto connectors and use the door to keep the drive in place. I see no mention in the warranty about them covering the drive when dropped inside their case. The case is hard. No mention of shock-absorbing mounts for the drive, and nothing else soft to absorb shock inside the case, so the drive is hardfixed to a carrier that is pressed against the hard case. Whatever shock the case incurs is transferred to the drive. not on your life will I let a orangutan grab one of these things after walking across a carpet and toss it around his truck cab. These drives have exposed circuitry to shock the dickens out of. Well, we don't need anything in the lab to exchange bare drives. Never needed anything a home, either, when using a drive dock. However, in your scenario, I did mention using a carry case that does provide some shock absorption and you can use an anti-static bag. In your scenario with an orangutan hurling around the drives, a case isn't going to protect them, either. Wrapped in 10 pounds of anti-static bubble wrap won't protect them. Nothing you use will guarantee their survival in a high-speed car crash. You can conjure any extreme you want that will surpass sane protection. Plus I've used USB-attached docks into which the bare drive gets inserted. No problems handling the bare drives. You will quickly wear out the connectors. Oh, and you thought there were no connectors on the CRU case? It magically connects to your PC? You're asking about moving around the drive so either you will wear the SATA connectors on the drive and in the dock or trayless cage or you wear the connectors on the CRU case. In the trayless cages we've used, you don't push the drive onto the connectors by pushing on the drive or remove the drive by yanking on it. There are levers that you push or pull plus the cage keeps the connectors in alignment. You be afraid if you want. We've been using these trayless hotswap cages with bare drives for many years for hundreds of drives. We have to test on a base OS install, OS with updates, OS at various service pack levels, OS with various common apps installed, etc. The drives work fine, until you unmount them. Then inserting them back into the sleave crashes the OS. If you boot up with the sleave empty, then insert the drive. Down you go. SATA = ACHI or RAID, don't matter. So you do have some cage into which to slide the drive into a "sleave" (sleeve) in your PC. So the drives do work when connected to a SATA port on starting the OS. It is only when when the OS is already loaded and you try to hotswap the drives that problems arise. Does that only occur with the drives you removed from the CRU caddy or with drives from anywhere using the "sleave"? Here's a pick of the connectors on the SATA drive: https://i.stack.imgur.com/9Su7n.png Notice some foils are longer than others, namely Select and Reset on the data connector and 3.3V and Ground. When inserting a hotswapped drive, power must be first applied to the drive so its logic can then signal the SATA controller on the mobo. When removing a hotswapped drive, the power has to remain at the drive so the controller can see the disconnect of the data lines before the drive loses power. While there is a difference in the length of the appropriate power and data foils, it's pretty small. Although users tend to use interchange the terms hotplug and hotswap, those are not the same. SATA support hotplug. Your chipset probably does, too. Whether the BIOS supports hotswap is another matter. Hotswap storage is hotpluggable. Hotpluggable storage is not necessarily hotswappable. With hotplug, the drive becomes ready but may not be automatically recognized by the OS so you have to use Device Management to do a rescan. With hotswap, the drive would need to be part of a volume in a RAID configuration. Hotpluggable devices are those you can remove and install while the host is still running. The hardware will cooperate with the hotpluggage device. That does not preclude the necessity of admin tasks before or after installing a hotpluggable drive to make it usable (i.e., mounting). With RAID, yes, you can have hotswappable drives but you still have to use the RAID manager to remove and add the drives. USB is an announced hotswap and polled protocol. There is detection in the OS of the new device and the handshaking identifies the device. SATA supports hotplug but that doesn't mean the hardware announces a change in configuration to the OS. Something in the OS, like a driver, would need to poll for a device reconfiguration for a hotplugged device. The SATA controller in the mobo's chipset supports hotplugging. I don't believe that requires notification to the OS so the admin has to do more work to make usable the hotplugged device, like mounting it. That's not the same as hotswapping which has a lot more considerations to take into account. See: http://www.analog.com/en/analog-dial...-hot-swap.html Something MORE (than the SATA controller chip or inbuilt functionality in the mobo chipset) must be added to support hotswapping. I don't what is the "sleave" you were using in the desktop host to facilitate a removable drive. |
#8
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/03/2017 12:46 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
T wrote: The CRU caddies can be dropped from six feet on to concrete. "TrayFree bays make adding drives effortless. It's as easy as opening the door, sliding the drive in, and closing the door. No screws, no trays. It just works." And each time you add to the insertion rate of the drive. When the connectors wear out you are screwed. Ever wonder why the stinking SATA cables inside yo case break all the time? It is because they are only rated for something like five insertions. My guess, it is on purpose so that the cable busts well before the connectors on the drive break. So the case goes with the drive when removed from the cage. Okay but I don't how that differs from removing the drive from a trayless cage and putting the drive into a transport case to effect the same protection. This is because once the drive is secured into the carriage, it never gets moved again. The connector on the back of the carriage that connects to the frame is the one that gets all the wear and tear. And it is rated for a massive amount of insertions. https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx...-3q/?tab=specs Don't see anything there are about drop protection. I asked years ago. I looked at the online manual and all it says about drive installation is "Slide the drive in from the front of the carrier.". The drive attaches to a "drive carrier" using screws. Well, that is not you using shock-absorbing mounts to install the drive inside the case. You attach a hard carrier onto the drive using hard screws and the drive+carrier slides on hard rails to push onto connectors and use the door to keep the drive in place. I see no mention in the warranty about them covering the drive when dropped inside their case. The case is hard. No mention of shock-absorbing mounts for the drive, and nothing else soft to absorb shock inside the case, so the drive is hardfixed to a carrier that is pressed against the hard case. Whatever shock the case incurs is transferred to the drive. You are missing something. Some of the shock is absorbed by the carriage. The rest is spread out between the rest of the frame and the four screws connecting the drive to the carriage. And it is an even shock, not a "point impact". To the force is far more spread out. not on your life will I let a orangutan grab one of these things after walking across a carpet and toss it around his truck cab. These drives have exposed circuitry to shock the dickens out of. Well, we don't need anything in the lab to exchange bare drives. Never needed anything a home, either, when using a drive dock. However, in your scenario, I did mention using a carry case that does provide some shock absorption and you can use an anti-static bag. You only issue would be wearing out connectors on the drives that are not rated for a lot of insertions. Oh, and you thought there were no connectors on the CRU case? The drive connects once to the connector in the carriage. The connector on the back of the carriage in rated for a lot of insertions. The carriage connect on the also high insertion rate connector on the inside of the frame. The back of the frame has a SATA data and a SATA power connector. No magic involved. Just well thought out engineering. In the trayless cages we've used, you don't push the drive onto the connectors by pushing on the drive or remove the drive by yanking on it. There are levers that you push or pull plus the cage keeps the connectors in alignment. The alignment help, but you are still doing multiple insertions with a connector that is not designed for that. You will eventually wear them out. You be afraid if you want. We've been using these trayless hotswap cages with bare drives for many years for hundreds of drives. We have to test on a base OS install, OS with updates, OS at various service pack levels, OS with various common apps installed, etc. With you handling the drives, I would not have much of an issue. Then again, you are not paid in bananas. |
#9
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How swap drive carriage?
T wrote:
On 09/03/2017 12:46 AM, VanguardLH wrote: T wrote: The CRU caddies can be dropped from six feet on to concrete. "TrayFree bays make adding drives effortless. It's as easy as opening the door, sliding the drive in, and closing the door. No screws, no trays. It just works." And each time you add to the insertion rate of the drive. When the connectors wear out you are screwed. Ever wonder why the stinking SATA cables inside yo case break all the time? It is because they are only rated for something like five insertions. My guess, it is on purpose so that the cable busts well before the connectors on the drive break. So the case goes with the drive when removed from the cage. Okay but I don't how that differs from removing the drive from a trayless cage and putting the drive into a transport case to effect the same protection. This is because once the drive is secured into the carriage, it never gets moved again. The connector on the back of the carriage that connects to the frame is the one that gets all the wear and tear. And it is rated for a massive amount of insertions. https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx...-3q/?tab=specs Don't see anything there are about drop protection. I asked years ago. I looked at the online manual and all it says about drive installation is "Slide the drive in from the front of the carrier.". The drive attaches to a "drive carrier" using screws. Well, that is not you using shock-absorbing mounts to install the drive inside the case. You attach a hard carrier onto the drive using hard screws and the drive+carrier slides on hard rails to push onto connectors and use the door to keep the drive in place. I see no mention in the warranty about them covering the drive when dropped inside their case. The case is hard. No mention of shock-absorbing mounts for the drive, and nothing else soft to absorb shock inside the case, so the drive is hardfixed to a carrier that is pressed against the hard case. Whatever shock the case incurs is transferred to the drive. You are missing something. Some of the shock is absorbed by the carriage. The rest is spread out between the rest of the frame and the four screws connecting the drive to the carriage. And it is an even shock, not a "point impact". To the force is far more spread out. not on your life will I let a orangutan grab one of these things after walking across a carpet and toss it around his truck cab. These drives have exposed circuitry to shock the dickens out of. Well, we don't need anything in the lab to exchange bare drives. Never needed anything a home, either, when using a drive dock. However, in your scenario, I did mention using a carry case that does provide some shock absorption and you can use an anti-static bag. You only issue would be wearing out connectors on the drives that are not rated for a lot of insertions. Oh, and you thought there were no connectors on the CRU case? The drive connects once to the connector in the carriage. The connector on the back of the carriage in rated for a lot of insertions. The carriage connect on the also high insertion rate connector on the inside of the frame. The back of the frame has a SATA data and a SATA power connector. No magic involved. Just well thought out engineering. In the trayless cages we've used, you don't push the drive onto the connectors by pushing on the drive or remove the drive by yanking on it. There are levers that you push or pull plus the cage keeps the connectors in alignment. The alignment help, but you are still doing multiple insertions with a connector that is not designed for that. You will eventually wear them out. You be afraid if you want. We've been using these trayless hotswap cages with bare drives for many years for hundreds of drives. We have to test on a base OS install, OS with updates, OS at various service pack levels, OS with various common apps installed, etc. With you handling the drives, I would not have much of an issue. Then again, you are not paid in bananas. Back to your inquiry, I have not yet found any desktop PC drive cages that go into an external drive bay that use USB for signal and power. So I haven't bothered enlarging a search (that found nothing) to see which of those would use a caddy surround for the drive. I haven't seen what you describe. With the bay-installed cage, it has a backplane with some protection circuitry to handle load changes from swapping in/out a drive but the backplane connects to a SATA port on the motherboard. Probably best to figure out why those extracted drives won't work on a SATA port on mobo (since the drives themselves have SATA connectors). If the user is going to constantly and repeatedly connect and disconnect the drive and since USB3 is the preferred connection interface and you want the drive enclosed, why won't an external USB3 drive enclosure work? It doesn't have to be as fat and long as the CRU external USB3 enclosure to which you linked if, for example, it's a slow RPM drive so it doesn't heat up much. I have used ventilated USB enclosures for WDC black drives. The all-metal enclosures just aren't good enough a thermal transfer medium to let the drive stay cool enough. If you eliminate the need for a fan, USB3 external enclosures aren't very big. If you are sure that the user will always use the external drive enclosure on USB3 ports on the host then the enclosure doesn't need room for a power supply. You obviously don't trust your gorilla customer to be removing or inserting the drive in a hotswap caddy, so why won't an external enclosure work? A USB3 external enclosure without a fan or power supply for a 5400 RPM drive, especially if configured for power-save, would be just as convenient as the customer having to tote around the drive inside a different enclosure (the USB caddy you're looking for). In fact, this customer could use the drive in USB3 external enclosure on different computers. After all, why is this gorilla, er, customer toting around the drive? If he wants to use it elsewhere then your hotswap caddy won't be usable anywhere else and defeats the intent of the customer. If they are toting to off-site storage for archiving backups, why would this customer want to be limited to only one desktop with the matching cage for the caddied drive? Lots of desktops, laptops, netbooks, etc. have USB3 ports. A caddied drive is no easier to transport or store than the same drive in a USB3 external enclosure. With the caddy+cage for hotswap, the customer is restricted to one host. If the intent is to allow hotswap of drives in a RAID config, your arguments about connector longevity fly out the window as fail(ed|ing) drives are not replaced that often (unless you're a huge data service, like Backblaze, with thousands of drives in redundant RAID farms which I doubt is true for your customer). |
#10
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/01/2017 06:23 PM, T wrote:
Hi All, Anyone know of a hot swap drive carriage, like this one https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx/rtx110-3q/ only internal and supports USB3? Many thanks, -T Follow up. Ha! Cru had one all alone. Their documentation is just a real stinker. https://www.cru-inc.com/products/dat...ort-dp25-3sjr/ |
#11
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How swap drive carriage?
On 09/03/2017 11:30 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
T wrote: On 09/03/2017 12:46 AM, VanguardLH wrote: T wrote: The CRU caddies can be dropped from six feet on to concrete. "TrayFree bays make adding drives effortless. It's as easy as opening the door, sliding the drive in, and closing the door. No screws, no trays. It just works." And each time you add to the insertion rate of the drive. When the connectors wear out you are screwed. Ever wonder why the stinking SATA cables inside yo case break all the time? It is because they are only rated for something like five insertions. My guess, it is on purpose so that the cable busts well before the connectors on the drive break. So the case goes with the drive when removed from the cage. Okay but I don't how that differs from removing the drive from a trayless cage and putting the drive into a transport case to effect the same protection. This is because once the drive is secured into the carriage, it never gets moved again. The connector on the back of the carriage that connects to the frame is the one that gets all the wear and tear. And it is rated for a massive amount of insertions. https://www.cru-inc.com/products/rtx...-3q/?tab=specs Don't see anything there are about drop protection. I asked years ago. I looked at the online manual and all it says about drive installation is "Slide the drive in from the front of the carrier.". The drive attaches to a "drive carrier" using screws. Well, that is not you using shock-absorbing mounts to install the drive inside the case. You attach a hard carrier onto the drive using hard screws and the drive+carrier slides on hard rails to push onto connectors and use the door to keep the drive in place. I see no mention in the warranty about them covering the drive when dropped inside their case. The case is hard. No mention of shock-absorbing mounts for the drive, and nothing else soft to absorb shock inside the case, so the drive is hardfixed to a carrier that is pressed against the hard case. Whatever shock the case incurs is transferred to the drive. You are missing something. Some of the shock is absorbed by the carriage. The rest is spread out between the rest of the frame and the four screws connecting the drive to the carriage. And it is an even shock, not a "point impact". To the force is far more spread out. not on your life will I let a orangutan grab one of these things after walking across a carpet and toss it around his truck cab. These drives have exposed circuitry to shock the dickens out of. Well, we don't need anything in the lab to exchange bare drives. Never needed anything a home, either, when using a drive dock. However, in your scenario, I did mention using a carry case that does provide some shock absorption and you can use an anti-static bag. You only issue would be wearing out connectors on the drives that are not rated for a lot of insertions. Oh, and you thought there were no connectors on the CRU case? The drive connects once to the connector in the carriage. The connector on the back of the carriage in rated for a lot of insertions. The carriage connect on the also high insertion rate connector on the inside of the frame. The back of the frame has a SATA data and a SATA power connector. No magic involved. Just well thought out engineering. In the trayless cages we've used, you don't push the drive onto the connectors by pushing on the drive or remove the drive by yanking on it. There are levers that you push or pull plus the cage keeps the connectors in alignment. The alignment help, but you are still doing multiple insertions with a connector that is not designed for that. You will eventually wear them out. You be afraid if you want. We've been using these trayless hotswap cages with bare drives for many years for hundreds of drives. We have to test on a base OS install, OS with updates, OS at various service pack levels, OS with various common apps installed, etc. With you handling the drives, I would not have much of an issue. Then again, you are not paid in bananas. Back to your inquiry, I have not yet found any desktop PC drive cages that go into an external drive bay that use USB for signal and power. So I haven't bothered enlarging a search (that found nothing) to see which of those would use a caddy surround for the drive. I haven't seen what you describe. With the bay-installed cage, it has a backplane with some protection circuitry to handle load changes from swapping in/out a drive but the backplane connects to a SATA port on the motherboard. Probably best to figure out why those extracted drives won't work on a SATA port on mobo (since the drives themselves have SATA connectors). If the user is going to constantly and repeatedly connect and disconnect the drive and since USB3 is the preferred connection interface and you want the drive enclosed, why won't an external USB3 drive enclosure work? It doesn't have to be as fat and long as the CRU external USB3 enclosure to which you linked if, for example, it's a slow RPM drive so it doesn't heat up much. I have used ventilated USB enclosures for WDC black drives. The all-metal enclosures just aren't good enough a thermal transfer medium to let the drive stay cool enough. If you eliminate the need for a fan, USB3 external enclosures aren't very big. If you are sure that the user will always use the external drive enclosure on USB3 ports on the host then the enclosure doesn't need room for a power supply. You obviously don't trust your gorilla customer to be removing or inserting the drive in a hotswap caddy, so why won't an external enclosure work? A USB3 external enclosure without a fan or power supply for a 5400 RPM drive, especially if configured for power-save, would be just as convenient as the customer having to tote around the drive inside a different enclosure (the USB caddy you're looking for). In fact, this customer could use the drive in USB3 external enclosure on different computers. After all, why is this gorilla, er, customer toting around the drive? If he wants to use it elsewhere then your hotswap caddy won't be usable anywhere else and defeats the intent of the customer. If they are toting to off-site storage for archiving backups, why would this customer want to be limited to only one desktop with the matching cage for the caddied drive? Lots of desktops, laptops, netbooks, etc. have USB3 ports. A caddied drive is no easier to transport or store than the same drive in a USB3 external enclosure. With the caddy+cage for hotswap, the customer is restricted to one host. If the intent is to allow hotswap of drives in a RAID config, your arguments about connector longevity fly out the window as fail(ed|ing) drives are not replaced that often (unless you're a huge data service, like Backblaze, with thousands of drives in redundant RAID farms which I doubt is true for your customer). Hi Vanguard, Found what I was looking for. See my follow up post. Thank you for all the help! -T p.s. this is not a workstation |
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