hard drive has to be mounted in case?

[DanielLee]

When I am imaging HDD1(mounted in the computer case) to HDD2 (not mounted) I open the case hook HDD2 up to the ribbon cable as a slave, hook up the power then lay HDD2 on the bottom edge of the case and create an image.

Question is, does it affect the grounding, performance or reliability not having HDD2 screwed into the case?

Thx,
D

"Five minutes at a time"

http://www.lamanzanilla.info

 

[Grenage]

I have only done this temporarily but I imagine the only bad point is that it can move around.

 

[edfair]

Must not. Millions of machines were produced with plastic rails that insulated the drive frames from the cases.
Will suggest that you rest the drive on a cardboard sheet, however. Will keep the board from grounding out.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[drdebit]

When I'm imaging to or from a loose drive and have to set it on the computer, I put an antistatic bag under it.

 

[Comtech]

Mounted in the case? What's that? ;-)
I have drives hanging by wires all over the place, never any troubles.

Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[drdebit]

Now I have visions of a basement with harddrives hanging from the floorjoists, colorcoded to go with an array of motherboards laid out on a shelving unit. You must spend a lot of time making custom cables though.

 

[Comtech]

I buy rainbow ribbon cable in 50' lengths, cut as needed, generally less than 24".
It looks so funky sticking out of a case (yes, I have long since lost the side panels to most of them), with a hard drive dangling.
I know it's a mess. I know also that there's no detrimental effect on the drives. Some older ones I have (60 meg, 200 meg, etc.), circa 1993 or so, are still running.
The "visions of a basement..." are not far off. My original machine is a Z80 based homebuilt, on those metal shelving racks, with 64k of RAM, CPU speed of 2.4mhz and dual 12" floppy drives. All hand cabled.

Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[edfair]

Sounds more like a SWTP6800 environment to me. Where we lost the top covers from taking it off so often to pink pearl the molex pins.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[drdebit]

This may be a little off topic but since it "kinda" came up.
I don't know how to make cables or have anyway to recover the cost of tool(s). On my tower case a second "loose" harddrive looks like the millenium falcon in escape maneuvers. I don't know how to make cables or have any way to recover the cost of tool(s). Can I buy a connector to plug into the slave position of the cable in the case and hook another cable to it and get my 2' cable that way? I can cover the power side with an extension cable.

 

[edfair]

Think you will find that there are unacceptable errors due to noise reflections on the line that way.
One place you can look for cable and coneectors is JDR for mail order and possibly Radio Shack. And lots more if you are serious.
And if you are careful the only tools you need are a vise and scissors.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[drdebit]

If I don't have to buy some expensive special tools, I may be serious - at least for one special cable. I think I know a local place I can look for materials, but that leads to another ? . If I want to, can I use the 40 pin cables to look at and Ghost to and from the newer drives that want the 80 pin cables "to do their best"? I have a WD "large drive" setup project at the top of my summer list.

 

[Comtech]

Like mentioned above, all you need is a vise, scissors (or exacto knife and steel straighedge), and some patience.
A 40 pin cable will work, if the drives are jumpered right, and the cable isn't too long. I don't like going over 24" for optical drives, and the faster 7200 rpm hard drives, I like to keep down to 16" or less, unless you're using 80 wire, then the distance can be almost doubled with reasonable reliability.

Cheers,
Jim

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

 

[edfair]

Now that we have you hooked. Ribbon cables have a habit of shrinking across the width. So you will want to warm it and stretch it across to the full width before you crimp it down. If you don't, you can get shorts between pins. Just make sure that the wire centers on the connectors on both sides.
Also, you will need a marking pen and a triangle to mark a square cut and square setting for the IDH header. You try to cut freehand and it will come out diagonol. You crimp freehand and you'll end up shorted.
Two hints from one who has wasted a few.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.