IDE Hot Swapping Software Options?

[Tio]

Are there any legitimate software options for hot swapping IDE 3.5 removable rack drives? As far as I know all the hot swappable labled racks have some amount of circuitry to handle this function.

I've found the following two software options but am not sure if they are stand-alone or require a particular hardware combination...

DriveSwap.com (http://www.driveswap.com/)
Kingwin Swap Software Manager (http://www.kingwin.com/support_dvr.asp?tempp=2)

I'm looking to just pick-up a bare bones swap rack and trays to enable use of some of my old drive collection but will pay extra for a swappable designed rack if required.

Insight appreciated. Cheers!

[Guest]

I tried DriveSwap32 and it did not work for me. No matter what I did it insisted that somebody had a file open on the drive and would not let me remove it. I checked and checked and could not find any application holding an open file. So it was useless for me.

[spuddog]

I don't know how many drives you have, or how much you want to spend, but I recently bought an external hard drive enclosure from Newegg for 25$ u.s. after shipping. It really works well, and you can take where you like.

[Guest]

See here:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21447426.html

I'll try this Device Manager trick tonight.

[Tio]

@neuron
I was hoping to get positive feedback on that DriveSwap utility as it would definitely be the easiest solution. Wonder if the problem may have been system/component specific? Still, that doesn't bode well for universal success.

That experts-exchange thread is food for thought. I did come across that the other day during my research but have reservations about using the method. I too wonder if it could do more harm than good. Let me know your experience anyhow. ;-)

Since Kingwin is a possible swap racks purchase I think I'll drop them an e-mail query about their hot swap software and product compatibility.


@spuddog
As these drive will be for the most part archive-only it might not be a bad idea to use a firewire/usb external enclosure. I could actually get away with a single unit if it is little effort to swap drives in the enclosure. Since I've not yet made a purchase I will have to do a bit more sole-searching.


Thank you for the replies guys! Thanks again Donald for the filters!

[Tio]

Found an online PDF relating to the installation of a Genica tray allowing hot swaping. Looks to be an average tray with no special hardware and provides the following information...

"Configuring Windows 98/98SE for Hot-Swapping with the Removable Hard Drive Tray - Once the system has booted into Windows, click the Start button, click “Settings”, and then click “Control Panel”. Once the control panel has opened, double click the icon labeled “System”. In the System window, click the “Device Manager” tab. A listing of all hardware installed to the system is listed here. Locate the listing for “Disk Drives”. Click the plus sign (+) to expand the listings here. Determine which of the listed drives is the drive installed to the removable hard drive tray. Highlight this hard drive by single clicking the listing, and then click the “Properties” button. In the properties window, click the “Settings” tab, and place a check mark next to the “Removable” option. Press the “OK” button to save the changes."

Link to full PDF. (http://www.genica.com/drivers/GN210man.pdf)

It makes note that the drive must be configured to "cable select" AND this will NOT work under NT/ME/XP OS's! Hmmm, my preference is W2k and I'm contemplating XP on my new build...not looking like a viable solution. :-(

Still awaiting a reply from Kingwin.

Regards