[GLLUG] Hot Swap an ATA Hard Drive -Another Approach

[Jeff Lawton]

I have been having difficulty getting the linux scripts Matt mentioned
to work. The freebsd ones detach and attach great when I try it in linux
it does not seem to rescan the IDE channel like it does in freebsd and
does not recognize that I changed the drive. also the "dangerous" in the
in the man pages are a little dis concerning.
.
On Wed, 2003-02-19 at 16:40, Gary Holbrook wrote:
> Some of the external enclosures are made for internal CDROM drives, which
> should mean that they'll fit a drive cage quite effectively.
> 
> While the idea isn't as nice as high end hardware, it is economical...and
> would provide for mirroring important data.  I actually contrived this
> notion whilst wallowing in thorough disgust at a slew of drive problems that
> I had.  Backups become a problem because the tapes frequently cost nearly as
> much as a second drive would.  This idea permits drive swapping with really
> cheap hardware without rebooting...using some of the fabulous scripts you
> guys posted earlier.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matt Graham" <danceswithcrows@usa.net>
> To: "gllug" <linux-user@egr.msu.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 4:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [GLLUG] Hot Swap an ATA Hard Drive -Another Approach
> 
> 
> > On Wednesday 19 February 2003 15:27, after a long battle with
> > technology, Gary Holbrook wrote:
> > > I've always wanted to try this with vanilla drives and cheap cages:
> > > Get a 5 1/4 inch external USB enclosure and mount one of the
> > > swappable cages in it.  Then you could use vanilla IDE drives and use
> > > the usb enclosure to make them hot-swap.
> >
> > I don't think this'd work the way you want it to.  The "swappable cages"
> > you refer to *will* make an IDE drive hot-swappable, so long as you run
> > the script Jeff mentioned earlier (on BSD) or the script I mentioned
> > earlier (on Linux) when swapping drives.  USB 1 is too slow for disks,
> > while USB 2 is better, it's still slower than a direct IDE connection.
> > You'll still have to rescan the SCSI bus using a script if you change
> > the drive without unplugging the USB device.  Not to mention that the
> > IDE hot-swap cages you refer to may be too big (many are meant to fit
> > in a 5.25" bay) to fit into the external USB disk enclosures (meant to
> > take 3.5" disks), and weird hardware interactions between the IDE
> > hotswap cage and the USB disk enclosure could take place.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >   "Bother," said Pooh.  "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
> >   phasers on the Heffalump; Piglet, meet me in transporter room three."
> >      --Robert Billing
> > There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
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> >
> 
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-- 
Jeff Lawton
Ideal Solution, LLC
www.idealso.com
517.669.4235