ymhatre said:
READING ALL THIS Stuff was cool..
But guys can these HDD be used as PLUG N PLAY devices...
I just like removable drives or pen drive...
Also Does SATA HDD supports Plug n play..
i mean i can remove sata cable out frm the rear pannel..
Aslo power cable can be removed out frm the same ..
when evr i want i can just plug n play the HDD...
BUt this is ALL about IF n BUTS..
YUP the drives work as PnP devices - only thing is you should not just unplug the drive but disconnect it from the system first by clicking on icon in systray. Need to do this so all data in memory buffers gets written to drive before it is disconnected from system. I hear this is necessary even before disconnecting pen drives and Card Readers.
@yogi7272 - I have used drives of various brands and sizes connected to the USB cases and cables - from a Toshiba 850mb to a Maxtor 250GB. I have a Toshiba Seagate Hitachi and MAxtor and all work fine.
@sabman - Some cases come with a fan built in and these keep the drive cooler - I have used a HDD in a USB case for a couple of hours - this was a Maxtor 250GB and the case was quite warm - I am sure the drive would have been hot. I think the way to go for long time use is to use a USB cable instead. This will leave the HDD in the open to be externally cooled.
The advantage of using external drives is obviously portability - meaning that you can attach same drive to many computers - and if you use a USB Cable than you can attach a CD or DVD writer to any computer or Notebook.
Downside is SPEED - I found that the same drive connected directly to the computer was twice as fast as when it was connected via a USB2 port.