DL said:
All Sata mobo controlers are hot swappable, however depending on the mobo
/ chipset the option may not be available in 'safely remove'
Z.K.
Not to make this situation more complicated than it needs to be, but...
Presumably you'll be using a SATA-II HDD in the external enclosure. If so,
by definition that device is "hot-swappable" ("hot-pluggable") presuming
your motherboard supports SATA-II. While the older SATA-I HDDs (and
motherboards that supported *only* SATA-I did not, by definition meet that
specification (capability), in virtually every instance in our experience -
as a practical matter - they did.
The eSATA connector supports "hot-swappable" ("hot-pluggable") capability.
But even if the external enclosure had a "regular" SATA connector it's
virtually certain that capability would be present, identical to the USB
connectivity. The advantage of the eSATA connector over the SATA connector
is that it's a more secure connector particularly when the device is being
used as an external device.
In any event, in most (but not all) instances the Safely Remove Hardware
icon will not be present during that SATA-to-SATA connectivity. You can
safely ignore either its presence or its absence. There will be no need to
invoke this process should the icon be present.
Virtually all the newer external enclosures with SATA-to-SATA capability
also include USB connectivity. So you can have both "worlds" available to
you, although as long as you can have SATA-to-SATA connectivity you should
use it in preference to USB connectivity. It's far faster re data transfer
rates. And, you now can have a bootable HDD even though it's an external
device.
Anna
