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Was considering a Removable IDE Hard Drive Rack for a 5.25" bay that I could exchange internal Hard Drives in as opposed to my previous idea of trying to boot WinXp Pro from a Hard Drive via a USB/IDE cable which either absolutely will not work or is more trouble than it is worth and keep coming across Removable IDE Hard Drive Racks that state that they are for 3.5" Hard Drives when Hard Drives actually measure 4"; is that just what the standard is referred to even though they measure 4" and the bays don’t measure 5.25" either???
Also, any advice on Removable IDE Hard Drive Racks would be appreciated, as I have never worked with them.
Thank you.
If you are thinking of building an XP hard disk that you can move from system to system, forget it. It will not work. Microsoft has gone through a lot of trouble to prevent just that thing.
Hard drives are 'called' 3.5" and standard bays are 'called' 5.25"
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No, I am not doing that;
this is for different Hard Drive setups as I own more than one legitimate and registered copies of WinXP Pro, and actually I have already done it by switching Hard Drives by opening the computer which is a bit of a hassle so I came up with doing it this way.
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They are called 3.5" because that is the size of the disk, not the size of the case. 5.25" bays are called that because the original PC floppy disks where 5.25". The actual bay is slightly larger.
Stuart
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True, so they all must have the same outside measurement as well then going by that standard.
Thanks that helps.
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hello frankenstein. kingwin makes removable mobile racks for 3.5" ide hard drives. the model kf-23-ipf is the one i use. i have 2 of them and have been using them for a little over 4 years. they come with a caddy/rack tray and i bought 2 additional trays (the trays can be purchased seperately). i don't do much swapping unless i want to throw in my linux drive to dicker with. i'm still trying out linux and didn't want to try to dual boot with windows. the other rack is for a storage drive. the one tray i have left is a spare. they work well.
http://www.kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp
http://www.kingwin.com/mobileracktr...
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the kf-23-ipf is aluminum as well as the removable trays. i don't know about the others in the series. however, the latch mechanism is plastic. the keylock/power switch is metal. the plastic seems to be rather tough though.
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i apologise for not being very clear. the kingwin kf-23-ipf rack will fit into an open 5.25" case bay. the 3.5" drive itself will fit into the tray which is then inserted into the rack. the plastic is i mentioned is a handle that helps one to remove the drive/tray. and after insertion, that handle will be moved down to lock the drive/tray into position. the key supplied will be used to turn the power on as well as help keep the drive/tray from being removed.
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Hmm, all these racks seem to be about 8.4" to 8.75" in length which is a bit long for the case as its too close to other components, are they all that long or are there shorter ones for smaller cases?
Thanks.
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Cannot tell where you are based, but here in the UK would suggest go to:-
click: enter shop
search for: removable ide
There is a device that does what you require. I would think they can be found in white plastic, as I have one.
These caddies fit in a standard height 5.25" bay. Regarding your depth concern, devices for these bays could be longer than 3.5" ones but not excessively so. Presumably there is a 'standard' maximum size for such.
If a pc has a 5.25" bay, I would think there will be sufficient room for a standard sized device to be installed.
Good Luck - Keep us posted.
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sorry for the delayed response. i turned in early. yes, frankenstein, they are long. i had to make sure that the racks did not touch the capacitors of the motherboard. no problem with my asus board. but i wouldn't just slam them in the first time if you were to take that route. once set in properly, they work fine. my other small bit of insight is that these particular racks would work better in a server case. the horizontal laying kind. such cases would allow for more room between the back of the rack and the board edges as well as only having the bottom rack possibly touching the board. simply use the top two bays (or 3) for rack duty.
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hi
just for info ive used this brand for ages ,
for same reason swap out OS's no problems ,
(sata are better less cable)
plastic or aluminium no difference, just asthetics, i prefer trayed variety, can leave a hd lying around when not in use, reasonably protected,,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trayless-Mo...just remember to secure the internal cage before slotting the hd in otherwise you will hit the caps on your mobo :o
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Frankenstein
If you only have one or two IDE drives you may want to consider the same concept using SATA drives instead. Or better yet use both types. Below is an example of a SATA bay. I just posted the first one that came up on Google.
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