Found method of testing older hard drives in windows 7

[k2x4b524[]

This works only if you have no ATA devices hooked up already, if everything else is hooked to SATA.

Windows 7 DOES allow hotswapping on the ATA bus, i've been testing several drives, 40mb to 80gb this way, you can do it without data loss or altering the bios in anyway, seems windows 7 handles all that on it's one.

How to do it:

Have 1 ATA cable 80 or 40 wire works for this.
1 long molex 4 pin, or an external 4 pin molex.

Power on the drive, then connect the cable, then goto system and scan for hardware changes. It will come up and ask if you want to view the folder or leave it be. Open the folder and move stuff around to see if it's good.
To remove, just goto system, then right click on the drive and hit uninstall, unplug the data cable and your golden. No more need for external dongles that wont see anything under 1gb. AND it doesn't corrupt anything if you do it this way.

 

[IBMMuseum]

This works only if you have no ATA devices hooked up already, if everything else is hooked to SATA.

Windows 7 DOES allow hotswapping on the ATA bus, i've been testing several drives, 40mb to 80gb this way, you can do it without data loss or altering the bios in anyway, seems windows 7 handles all that on it's one.

How to do it:

Have 1 ATA cable 80 or 40 wire works for this.
1 long molex 4 pin, or an external 4 pin molex.

Power on the drive, then connect the cable, then goto system and scan for hardware changes. It will come up and ask if you want to view the folder or leave it be. Open the folder and move stuff around to see if it's good.
To remove, just goto system, then right click on the drive and hit uninstall, unplug the data cable and your golden. No more need for external dongles that wont see anything under 1gb. AND it doesn't corrupt anything if you do it this way.

I just use an USB-IDE setup - you don't even have to get into the interior, it is independent of the IDE inside, and can use the provided power supply...

If you're not careful with that molex...

The converters aren't that costly, and you don't have the same opportunity to dork up a new system's motherboard...

The only constraint is to typically have the drive as master (CS doesn't usually work), but that might be true the way you do it too...

The SATA units are even easier...

 

[k2x4b524[]

well true, but i'm working with the oldest of the old ide drives, it works great as all my usb-ide adapters refuse to read anything under 1gb, and since my case is usually open anyway, i thought i'd try it on a hunch, and windows 7 doesn't seem to care, so i figured others may want to know about it

 

[IBMMuseum]

well true, but i'm working with the oldest of the old ide drives, it works great as all my usb-ide adapters refuse to read anything under 1gb, and since my case is usually open anyway, i thought i'd try it on a hunch, and windows 7 doesn't seem to care, so i figured others may want to know about it

I thought I've tested a few drives below a gig that way. My drives are typically set old-school, and systems here with two may not have the master on the end of the cable. Older drives didn't have CS settings as common (before SATA, all manufacturers seemed to use CS for hard and optical drives), so that wouldn't seem to be your below-gig issue.

 

[mbbrutman]

Hot plugging things that were not designed to be hot plugged in a bad idea. It has nothing to do with Windows 7 - it is a function of the hardware.

If you want to test older hardware safely, get something like an IDE/SATA to USB 2 adapter. I bought one recently that has 40 pin IDE, 44 pin IDE (laptop) and SATA ports on it. The device makes the hard drive look like USB mass storage. It comes with a stand-alone power supply with a switch so that you can make your connections and then turn the power on to enable the drive. That is infinitely safer than any type of hot plugging on the old hardware. Best of all, the device only cost like $17.

If your drives are really so old where they won't work on one of the USB adapters, then you might want to just take the time to power the host system on and off while you make the connections.

Mike

 

[k2x4b524[]

no problems yet, i've made a cut-off switch at the power cable to make powering it off and on easier. I have 3 of those ide adapters and none like anything under 1gb, and only half of my drives under 2gb work with it. Cant figure out why. Just stumbled on this windows thing simply by playing around.

 

[Mike Chambers]

mbbrutman is right, it's a function of the hardware. i've done ATA hotswapping even on windows 2000 machines, and while it probably is not the best idea, if you are careful when plugging things in, you should be fine. just don't do it on a machine you couldn't stand to break, just in case! but yes, i use USB adapters when possible instead.

 

[Druid6900]

no problems yet, i've made a cut-off switch at the power cable to make powering it off and on easier. I have 3 of those ide adapters and none like anything under 1gb, and only half of my drives under 2gb work with it. Cant figure out why. Just stumbled on this windows thing simply by playing around.

Your mailbox is full, so, I can't reply. Fix it.

 

[barythrin]

I'd never heard of ata hotswapping until doing a softmod on the original xbox which required it. Not a very good idea IMHO but was interesting to see a drive get discovered in linux without being connected during the BIOS check. (i.e. you end up connecting the drive to the computer after it's already up and booted, then it someone is still able to access the drive). I guess the resources are already allocated regardless of the BIOS.

 

[njroadfan]

no problems yet, i've made a cut-off switch at the power cable to make powering it off and on easier. I have 3 of those ide adapters and none like anything under 1gb, and only half of my drives under 2gb work with it. Cant figure out why. Just stumbled on this windows thing simply by playing around.

I can confirm this with the USB adapters. Old drives HATE them. They will spin down immediately when you plug them into the adapter.