Re: OT: Swapping hard drives

[ajx jxz@xxxxxxxx]

"J. R. Fox" wrote:

> If you're talking about hard drives that slide In / Out of your
> computer case, these drive trays are called mobile racks. There are
> various mfr.s, Lian-Li being one of the better ones.

I've got some, all of Chinese origin.

Before buying, I'd recommend checking one point - a detail, but one
which makes a difference. The racks work obviously, by having one part
captive in the pc, another, mobile one, which receives the hard drive.
Each of these has connectors for the hard disk power supply and data
attached to them, lined up so that connection is almost automatic. 

The difference is whether or not the handle on the mobile bit of the
rack assists the process of inserting the mobile bit in the captive bit
and doing the connecting. In one of mine it does - just put the drive
in, make sure it's reasonably well placed then close the handle and it
does the difficult bit all itself.

In the other, the handle has been designed to help not with insertion,
just with extraction. So to insert it you're left fiddling around
trying to find just the right position for the connectors to mate, then
pushing quite hard for the fifty or so pins to mate with their sockets.
It always takes at least five tries and it's clearly increasing the risk
of damaging something.

The difference is not something you can see with the eye - unless you're
an engineer and a designer of these things. To test it, you really need
to try out the process of extraction and insertion.

Happy shopping
John

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