Safest Way To Switch SSDs/HDs Daily Without Damaging Them?

[truthseekerowner]

Today encountered an unique case while using a friends computer. They divided users, OSs and ownerships just by having 4 storage drives installed but only one connected. For example if his brother wanted to use the PC he just turns off the PSU switch and he disconnects my friends sata and power cable from the SSD. Then he just connects the cables in his SSD with his OS and files. They do this daily 2 or 3 times a day. So i wondered how safe is to do this and how it can damage the PC. Is there a better way to do this safely?

 

[aldan]

while its no likely to cause damage it sure is a pain in the ass.you should be able to set a boot selection whereby a user is able to select boot to their particular hdd.

 

[smorizio]

they make what called hot swap bays for smb. if they get the right one instead of piulling the drives they should beable to just unpower the drive they dont want to tuch. a better fix is have to vm accounts on the same pc. use two of the ssd as a raid o and the hard drives as data drives. with vm machine they can have two vertual pc on the same hardware and they wont see each other data.

 

[truthseekerowner]

@aldon Yeah first time i encounter a situation like that. Money is definitly an issue since if they wanted separate os the could have their own PC. Doing partitions is not an option don't know why and each ssd they have is 120gb.

@smorizio the hot swap idea seems good. If that assures anyone not even the pc access data between ssds is great. Any info on that?

 

[jsmithepa]

Safe? Probably OK unless you are in a high static area, but SATA connectors are really not meant for repeat un/plug.

My God chap! that's like trying to clip toenails with a lawnmower. A bette way? DEPENDS. What's the precise reason they are doing this? to maintain privacy so nobody can, even accidentally access other's stuff? Are they booting the same OS, or different OSes.

 

[ArtPog]

You (and your friends) might want to consider the use of removable HDD/SSD devices as a viable option.

The beauty of installing removable HDD/SSDs in a desktop PC is that the user can easily work with multiple drives each drive effectively isolated from each other (when desired) containing different operating systems (if desired) and accommodating different storage needs.

Through a simple turn of a mobile rack's keylock or pressing its power switch the user can thus boot to this drive or that drive without the need for any "bootloader" or any other multi-booting software, as well as avoiding the need (in most cases) to access the motherboard's BIOS to change the boot priority order in order to boot to this or that particular HDD.

With removable HDD/SSDs the desktop PC users have an UNLIMITED number of drives to work with should they choose without the need for opening their computer cases to install the drive in the machine. Again, each removable drive is isolated from the other drives at the user's option.

We've been working with removable hard drives for about 15 years now and have installed or helped users install hundreds of these devices over those years. By & large we've found this desktop PC hardware configuration a most desirable one for the great majority of desktop PC users. And we've found that the only regret virtually every desktop PC user of these devices has had is that they didn't install them sooner!

These mobile racks come in basically two types of configurations - some are two-piece affairs - the mobile rack itself and the inner tray or caddy (in which the hard drive (HDD or SSD resides) that slides into the rack. They come in all-aluminum models or a combination of aluminum-plastic, or all-plastic, ranging in price from about $15 to $50. A Google search for "removable hard drive mobile racks" will result in a wealth of information on these products and their vendors.

Currently we're working with this device...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817995104&cm_re=athena_power_mobile_racks-_-17-995-104-_-Product

It's an "updated" version of the device we've been using for many years. While it's an all-plastic model it has proven very reliable for us. What we particularly like about it (aside from its reliability and reasonable cost) is that rather than use a keylock mechanism found in most devices of this kind, where one needs a key to turn the power on or off, the device has a simple push button to do so. The removable tray which contains the drive is equipped with a simple push-to-release lever that easily physically connects or disconnects the tray from the rack should the user desire to do so. So changing from one storage drive to another "on the fly" is a piece of cake while the system is running. As you will note from the Newegg offering additional removable trays are available (although given the cost it's probably more sensible to purchase the unit (rack + tray) as a whole).

There is no hassle of any consequence in fitting one or more removable racks to one's desktop PC. The installation of these devices is simplicity itself - no more difficult than installing an optical drive. After the rack is installed you just plop the HDD or SSD into the removable tray (caddy), make two simple connections (power & data cable), and slide the tray into the mobile rack. Understand that when you install a removable HDD/SSD device -that's it. You're not installing/removing the rack itself. It's a permanent part of the PC in exactly the same way that one's optical drive is.

(Unfortunately this mobile rack is designed to only house a 3 1/2" hard drive in its removable tray. Four screws are provided to secure the hard drive in the tray (although truth to tell since we frequently switch HDDs we rarely ever use any of these screws and simply slip the HDD in the tray unsecured - connects perfectly to the rack's SATA power/data connectors).

As indicated, the mobile rack is not designed to house a SSD (2 1/2"). Like many users we've been continually switching over to SSDs and pretty much phasing out our 3 1/2" HDDs. We've been able to install our SSDs in the removable trays by using hard foam inserts (the kind of foam usually found in packaging materials) and so far they've worked pretty well. Heavy-duty packaging tape is another option.

We've also drilled two small holes in the base of the removable tray, lining them up with the front screw holes of an SSD so as to secure the SSD to the removable tray. (The placement of these SSD screw holes is standard for both 7mm & 9mm SSDs). But of course it would be so much more desirable for the device to be designed so that it could accommodate both 2 1/2" & 3 1/2" drives. Judging from the current design of the removable tray it would appear that a relatively simple manufacturing modification of the tray would allow the installation of either size drive.

Naturally one's desktop PC must contain at least one vacant 5 1/4" (or 3 1/2") bay to accommodate the removable HDD/SSD device. Multiple vacant 5 1/4" bays in the PC case can be an advantage since mobile racks can be installed in each of the bays should the user desire this configuration.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Great answer pog. Ill check the product. Jssmithpea, i think his brother uses linux and the rest use windows from the dell dvd. I think privacy is also an issue. In anycase the cheapest way seems to be the way they are doing it. I doubt unplugging sata and power from the drives is that bad? They use the same power cable for every drive and they just leave the sata cable hanging since they use fifferent ones already plugged in. I think his father leaves the hdd connected he just removed it and connects his.

 

[jsmithepa]

i think his brother uses linux and the rest use windows from the dell dvd.

Then another option is to leave everything connected, assuming 1. There are enough connectors, 2. PSU is able to handle it, then in modern BIOS (last 5 years?) you should be able to pick, at boot time, which drive you want to boot from. Here though, an OS *may* be able to read what in the other drive.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Yeah then that leads me to the final question. For my own curiosity. Which would be the safest way to remove and add Ssds and HDs if you have to constantly?

Turn psu switch off and just remove the power cable connect it to the drive you are gonna use and remove sata cable, leave it hanging and conect the other sata?And how safe is this?

 

[Math Geek]

i have done similar things in the past though not nearly as many drives swapping but all i did was move the sata connection. i left them all hooked up to a power connector and did not have any issues. no sata cable and the pc won't be able to read it so it did not bother spinning up the drive nor even acknowledge it to be there in the bios. one less step anyway only having to unplug the sata cable and move it.

plugging them all in and letting the boot manager handle which boots will allow the os to see the other drives and to access the info on them. i don't think there is a way to "hide" the other drives when they are all hooked up and being read by the os.

i messed with hot swapping a long while ago and only managed to mess up a number of drives with it. i assume it has improved and is now less likely to mess up the drive. i had everything from data loss to creating a brick out of my hdd hot swapping.

seems to me that since many pc's can now boot from an external drive, this would be the easiest way to go. now you are not messing with the inside of the pc case but only shutting down and changing what external is plugged in. at least this is how i would go about trying to manage so many separate drives.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Math Geek that a pretty good idea. I know it wont be as fast as an SSd but its a ggod idea. I guess you will have unplug the SSD connected unless everybody uses external drives. Anyway i was just curious after seeing that if they were doing damage to the PC or not.

 

[Math Geek]

the potential for damage is mostly the connections themselves. the sata cable and power connections are not meant to be regularly played with. over time, you will probably see the connections loosening up and possibly being having issues with data loss and other issues. this is not guaranteed but it is the possibility of doing this long term.

same would go for the usb port. over time they do loosen up (anyone with an old pc has seen this reality) and start having trouble. so same issues could be had here.

both of these would be quicker to happen if whomever is making the switch is not careful. not to say that young people are hasty and lack the patience to do it right but young people are hasty and lack the patience to take their time to do this move over and over. they probably already put too much force on the cable itself as they remove it and will certainly keep it up over time. it's just the nature of the beast. the cables, connections and ports won't hold up to it in the long term.

 

[truthseekerowner]

Thanks for all your help guys.