Backing up data without the caddy..

[dangel]

So I was a bit bored yesterday and just happened to have bought a 500GB SATA drive for backup my system (since I run the peril of RAID 0). I hadn't bought a caddy for it - my intention was to back up via USB. And then a thought occured to me (it has been known to happen):

Why do I need it to be external?

Answer: I don't. In fact, I don't want it to be at all - because USB 2.0 is dog-slow and then i've got a powerpack and cables to fuss around with.

So, thinking about it - i'd rather use a SATA connector on my motherboard and have the drive installed internally. Ah - you say - but then you'll have it running all the time wasting power and wearing out that fat drive!
But, of course, SATA does have one thing in common with USB - it's hot swappable.. So what if I made up a power lead which allowed me to switch power on/off to the drive at will? Well I did, and it works - wonderfully. So, now I can backup (without rebooting) just by flicking a wee switch on the front of my PC which powers the drive up and down - windows sees the drive appear/disappear etc.

Possible downside - if the interface doesn't support 'unplugging' I could lose data should I power down during a write operation. This is mitigated by using NTFS though, as it's pretty good at coping with 'dirty' drives. nVidia-based controllers do, but the SiL controller (I have both) doesn't (or so it seems) on my motherboard.

But all in all, it cost me a lot less than a caddy-based solution and is much (much) faster at backing up. Simple idea and not exactly brag-worthy but I thought I'd share it with you

I'm calling it 'iSATA' lol

[hibby]

Disable write caching to it, and then you should be able to unmount it using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option on the taskbar.

[dangel]

Disable write caching to it, and then you should be able to unmount it using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option on the taskbar.

Thanks for the tip - i'll give that a go. I'd just assumed it was because the controller didn't support it (my RAID array appears as 'removable' on the other one).

[merdat]

dangel , That is a great 'idea' which I must try. -does away with the need for a caddy 'hot swap' system plus the drives can be left in place . -great idea

[artaxerxes]

obviously it doesn't protect you against a cataclysmic hardware failure... but it certainly protects you against a single hard drive failure. I would suggest Raid Mirroring but your setup have the slender advantage that a PSU blow will not take out your backup drive (unless you are mid backup).