OT: Bottom-Of-Drive Protectors?

[(PeteCresswell)]

With things like this becoming more common

http://tinyurl.com/ykow3ua
http://gizmodo.com/312747/hdd-usb-dock-plugs-bare-sata-drives-like-nes-cartridges

it seems like there could be a thin plate that could be screwed
on to the bottom of a drive such that it would protect the
circuit board yet still allow the drive to be inserted into such
devices - thus avoiding the need for keeping the drive in a
case/box when not in use.

Or am I just wishing?

 

[choro]

Why go to all that bother when you can probably buy a proper HD case
where the HD will be safe and sound and connected to the comp using a
USB or firewire cable. Much cheaper and more efficient.

The only reason why one should want to use this type of device is if you
are going to use it once in a blue moon OR you have quite a few HDs that
you might want to plug in. An external HD case would be a much more
sensible option.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per choro:

OR you have quite a few HDs that
you might want to plug in. An external HD case would be a much more
sensible option.

That's where I am: a row of the things where I swap out the one
that is in use daily.

It's not a religious issue.... and Kmart probably has something
plastic that, with a little bubble wrap glued in would do the
job.

But it would be a nicety no to have to fumble with (or spend
money on...) cases every time a drive gets swapped.

Except for the exposed circuit board, these things look pretty
durable to me.

 

[Paul]

Per choro:

That's where I am: a row of the things where I swap out the one
that is in use daily.

It's not a religious issue.... and Kmart probably has something
plastic that, with a little bubble wrap glued in would do the
job.

But it would be a nicety no to have to fumble with (or spend
money on...) cases every time a drive gets swapped.

Except for the exposed circuit board, these things look pretty
durable to me.

The circuit board on modern drives, has been turned inwards.
The SMT components are protected, as they're on the inside.
All you see, is the back of the PCB. There are traces on it,
and several Torx screws, but there is little to damage
on that side. You'd have to scribe the surface with a
lot of force, to cut a conductor. As long as the
dock has a plastic frame, I don't think you'd have anything
to worry about.

I'm not a big fan of hot swap, because of the details at
unplug time. I'd want some assurance the heads are parked
and the platter is spun down, before removing the device.
I don't know the details of that bit, like what operation
on the computer, is guaranteed to put the drive in a
safe state.

Paul

 

[mm]

With things like this becoming more common

http://tinyurl.com/ykow3ua
http://gizmodo.com/312747/hdd-usb-dock-plugs-bare-sata-drives-like-nes-cartridges

it seems like there could be a thin plate that could be screwed
on to the bottom of a drive such that it would protect the
circuit board yet still allow the drive to be inserted into such
devices - thus avoiding the need for keeping the drive in a
case/box when not in use.

I just got something like this by Thermaltake from NewEgg, which iirc
had the best price, at least for the dual one, that holds two drives.
It says you can use both simultaneously with USB and you can also with
PCI-E? if you have a later version of the pci-e software. (otherwise
it will only recognize one drive at a time, or probably one drive even
though two are plugged in.

BTW, is it pronounced a la English or Japanese? Thermal-tayk, or
thermaltahki?

Or am I just wishing?

I don't know if youre just wishing. Maybe you could make your own. So
far I've avoided touching anything, but I haven't used it much yet
because my one spare available SATA drive isn't partitioned yet. But
I used other drives which had only a cable connecting them and managed
not to short out anything.

I have a couple enclosures for IDE but found them inconvenient when I
wanted to change drives. It seems they won't make a dock like this
for IDE because there is no requirement there to standardize location
of the connectors.

 

[LVTravel]

The circuit board on modern drives, has been turned inwards.
The SMT components are protected, as they're on the inside.
All you see, is the back of the PCB. There are traces on it,
and several Torx screws, but there is little to damage
on that side. You'd have to scribe the surface with a
lot of force, to cut a conductor. As long as the
dock has a plastic frame, I don't think you'd have anything
to worry about.

I'm not a big fan of hot swap, because of the details at
unplug time. I'd want some assurance the heads are parked
and the platter is spun down, before removing the device.
I don't know the details of that bit, like what operation
on the computer, is guaranteed to put the drive in a
safe state.

Paul

It isn't the computer parking the heads on new drives, it is the electronics
and mechanics in the drive itself. If power is lost the heads automatically
park to prevent damage. This is the same whether you are hot swapping a
drive or you just shut the computer down with the power switch. The only
issue with hot swapping drives is if all the data in the drive's cache has
been written to the drive itself.

 

[Dominique]

The circuit board on modern drives, has been turned inwards.
The SMT components are protected, as they're on the inside.
All you see, is the back of the PCB. There are traces on it,
and several Torx screws, but there is little to damage
on that side. You'd have to scribe the surface with a
lot of force, to cut a conductor. As long as the
dock has a plastic frame, I don't think you'd have anything
to worry about.

I'm not a big fan of hot swap, because of the details at
unplug time. I'd want some assurance the heads are parked
and the platter is spun down, before removing the device.
I don't know the details of that bit, like what operation
on the computer, is guaranteed to put the drive in a
safe state.

Paul

There's a switch on those devices, once you eject it from Windows with
"remove hardware" icon and Windows tells you can safely remove the drive,
you use the switch to remove power to the drive, the platters stop
spinning, the heads park and you remove the drive from the docking
station.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per LVTravel:

If power is lost the heads automatically
park to prevent damage. This is the same whether you are hot swapping a
drive or you just shut the computer down with the power switch. The only
issue with hot swapping drives is if all the data in the drive's cache has
been written to the drive itself.

The toaster-like dock I use has a power button that I press to
cut power to the drive. XP has an option to not cache data for
a drive and I try to remember to set that for any removables.