Note:
I tried to send an earlier response with a ebay link that has an example of
a these Mobile Racks but the message did not make it to the newsgroup.
Maybe because of the link. So I'm resending the information in this post.
A better name is a Mobile Rack. You can get a mobile rack for either SATA
or IDE drives, so you must know which type of harddrive you have. The
connections are different for IDE Drives vs SATA drives.
The racks are designed in two parts. Part "A" is installed (internally) in
the computer's 3.5" bay. Part "B" has a handle on it and slides in and out
of part "A". This part "B" is the part that holds the harddrive. The two
parts mate together, creating the connections. One mobile rack is designed
to hold one harddrive. Usually there is an on/off switch or a key, that not
only locks the parts together but also turns the unit on (electrically)
If you want to be able to switch one drive off and the other drive on, with
out changing out the drive in the rack, you will need two Mobile Rack Units
(which is what I have). Both drives are set up as a primary and you only
switch on the drive you want to boot to and switch off the drive your not
using. If you only purchase one mobile rack, you will have to pull out part
B, switch drives, then put part B back into part A. This is easy to do.
An advantage of 2-mobile racks is no only for convenience but also so that
you can have both drives running at the same time. In this situation, one
drive is configured as primary and the other drive is configured as Slave.
This configurations is popular if your doing backups from one drive to the
other (such as doing a clone or an Image with third party software...
Acronis True Image).
Hope this makes sense.
"Denis Mahony" <dmahony@iol.ie> wrote in message
news:elf%23bDduHHA.3588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Sound like a good idea ...
>
> Is a hot-swap cradle one that takes a single drive, and you insert the one
> you wish to boot from ?
> Or does it have a capacity for two drives, and you switch on or other off
> ?
>
> Pics I've seen seem to indicate the drives are prewrapped in adaptor
> sleeve ....and slide into a slot on the PC ..
> Does that mean you have to buy a specially packaged drive ?
> Is there one that takes a bare drive(s) ?
> Googling hot swap cradle left me a little puzzled 
>
> Denis
>
>
>
> "JCO" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message
> news:uGGYBkcuHHA.4916@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> The best option is to make a small investment and get another drive.
>> Make the drive swappable (purchasing a hot-swap Cradle). Then you simply
>> turn on the drive you want to use and turn off the one you don't use.
>> Both drives in a Hot Swap Cradle will have an electrical on/off switch.
>>
>
Linear Mode
