Hi guys.. I want to install a hot swap drive drive. I want to know how I can check if its compatible with my system. Looking forward. to your responses
I have never used hotswap on regular computers only on servers with hardware Raid
But if i don't remember wrong.. some computers in bios under sata drive settings something-like-that there can be a setting for Hotswap usage on the SATA channel/s
We need a lot more information.
What type of drive are you using? Internal HDD/SSD? Or an External USB HDD/SSD or something else, like a Flash Drive? Optical Drive? SD Card etc
What do you consider Hot Swapable? What type of connector are you using?
If the drive has been partitioned and formatted for Windows then it will be compatible with your Windows OS.
Hi spunk,
Thanks for the reply. TBH I dont know much about hot swappables. All I know is, one would benefit my privacy and security. I contacted MSI inquiring whether my mobo is compatible with swappables or not and their response is that it is.
Since it sounds like you know a lot about this grey area, do let me know what you recommend in buying one. Fyi, I'm looking into buying an internal swappable.
I look forward to your much needed response!
If you have an unused 5.14" front bay in your case, the size of a standard Optical (CD/DVD) drive, you can get a removable enclosure and mount that. You can put in any 3.5" HDD or 2.5" SSD drive in the Removable tray in the Enclosure. When you want to swap drives, you shut down, the computer pull the removable tray with the drive in it, and replace it with another tray of a different drive and restart the computer. If replacing drive with another OS, make sure the OS was installed previously on this drive on this computer, so it will boot the computer from this drive.
There should be no issue if it is a Data drive. This can also change data drives while the computer is booted into Windows or Hot Swappable. But you may have to go into Device Manager and Scan For Hardware Changes, if the drive isn't recognized right away.
I used to use Hot Swappable enclosures back in the day but I don't have a use for it now.
With the low cost of drives today, it is not worth it to use Hot Swappable enclosures for Data drives. Having different USB 3.1 USB drives and swapping them is much easier. Or having a NAS data server on your network with you data on it.
If you want to experiment with different OS's Hot Swappable drives would have some advantage.
But you can also have Virtual Drives with various OS's using Virtual Box or your favorite VHD app. I have virtual drives for 98, XP, Windows 7, , 8.1 and Server.
So basically a how swappable drive is just an enclosure and mount for an SSD or hard drive?
So fyi, my aim is to use a main drive for playing games (without any of my personal data on it) while a hot swap drive is used to store all my personal data. The goal is to completely remove the risk of any viruses on my main drive from leaking into another drive, which a swappable drive will be perfect for.When you want to swap drives, you shut down, the computer pull the removable tray with the drive in it, and replace it with another tray of a different drive and restart the computer.
I dont want to physically swap out a drive when I'm done using my main drive. I want to swap drive to remain on my PC. That said, I want the ability to switch drives (not physically swap them). Let me know what you think.
I know about vm. But a swappable is best for my needs as viruses in a vm may leak into the host which is too risky to accept.But you can also have Virtual Drives with various OS's using Virtual Box
Would explain this? I dont understand fully.There should be no issue if it is a Data drive. This can also change data drives while the computer is booted into Windows or Hot Swappable.
Looking forward to your responses to my questions.
caddy in pc front bay.
in bios set sata port to hotswap enabled.
I always do it.
example:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32864220854.html
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