hot plug/hot swap IDE hard disk

[CW]

Anybody knows what hardware is required if I like to hot plug/hot swap
an IDE hard disk from an ordinary PC running Linux while it is
powered-on?

System Configuration
* Standard IBM/Intel PC with standard ATA/IDE south bridge
* Standard 3.5" HDD
* Linux

While the PC is powered on, after unmounting the HDD in Linux, I like
to remove it and replace it with another, followed by mounting it.

* Is there any special hardware I need to ensure neither the PC nor
the HDD gets spoiled (considering disk head spin-down, hot swap issues
like voltage/current surge, etc.)
* Where can I buy this hardware?
* Any software command/program needed besides umount?


Thanks!

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Anybody knows what hardware is required if I like to hot plug/hot swap
an IDE hard disk from an ordinary PC running Linux while it is
powered-on?

System Configuration
* Standard IBM/Intel PC with standard ATA/IDE south bridge
* Standard 3.5" HDD
* Linux

While the PC is powered on, after unmounting the HDD in Linux, I like
to remove it and replace it with another, followed by mounting it.

* Is there any special hardware I need to ensure neither the PC nor
the HDD gets spoiled (considering disk head spin-down, hot swap issues
like voltage/current surge, etc.)
* Where can I buy this hardware?
* Any software command/program needed besides umount?

Use SATA.

 

[J. Clarke]

Use SATA.

But make sure that the host adapter is fully compliant with the standard.
There are some that don't support hot-swap even though it's required by the
standard.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

But make sure that the host adapter is fully compliant with the standard.

There are some that don't support hot-swap even though it's required by the
standard.

Oh, where exactly does it say that?

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Anybody knows what hardware is required if I like to hot plug/hot swap
an IDE hard disk from an ordinary PC running Linux while it is powered-on?

System Configuration
* Standard IBM/Intel PC with standard ATA/IDE south bridge
* Standard 3.5" HDD
* Linux

While the PC is powered on, after unmounting the HDD in Linux,

I like to remove it

You have to make sure that it has stopped spinning when you do.

and replace it with another, followed by mounting it.

* Is there any special hardware I need to ensure neither the PC nor
the HDD gets spoiled

(considering disk head spin-down,

That is the main concern.

hot swap issues like voltage/current surge, etc.)
* Where can I buy this hardware?

* Any software command/program needed besides unmount?

A spin-down command would be nice if unmount doesn't do that already.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Anybody knows what hardware is required if I like to hot plug/hot swap
an IDE hard disk from an ordinary PC running Linux while it is
powered-on?

System Configuration
* Standard IBM/Intel PC with standard ATA/IDE south bridge
* Standard 3.5" HDD
* Linux

While the PC is powered on, after unmounting the HDD in Linux, I like
to remove it and replace it with another, followed by mounting it.

And there is the problem: You will have to re-detect the new HDD,
just like the old one was on start-up. As far as I know the current
kernels (including 2.6.x) cannot do this for IDE.

* Is there any special hardware I need to ensure neither the PC nor
the HDD gets spoiled (considering disk head spin-down, hot swap issues
like voltage/current surge, etc.)

Yes and no. You need special hardware in order to protect HDD and
controller, but you cannot be sure it really works, since this was
never specified for IDE.

* Where can I buy this hardware?
* Any software command/program needed besides umount?

A kernel-patch that allows IDE re-scanning? I do not know whether
such a patch exists.

Better Options: FireWire, USB, SCSI. All these do hot-plugging under
Linux without anuthing special besides running 'rescan-scsi-bus.sh'
after the new device has ben plugged in. (Yes, USB/FireWire are
treated as SCSI.) Of course you will ned to unmount and power-down a
device before unplugging and if you use SCSI, you have to plug it in
before powering it up.

Arno