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Driver for Making USB 2.0 Hard Drive Hot Swappable under Win2k


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I am a new user of Restrospect 6.0 Win MultiServer. I have been partial to backing up to hard disks for the past 5 years, and intend to continue doing so.

 

 

 

Currentlly, I back up to an internal 80GB 7200 RPM IBM ATA/eIDE disk. I recently purchased a 120 GB IBM 7200 RPM IBM ATA HD inside a USB 2.0 enclosure, and a USB 2.0 PCI card to attach it.

 

 

 

My intention was to copy the backup from the internal HD to the USB disk on a daily basis, then disconnect the USB disk and take it home with me every night. However, I've run into a problem in that the OS will not allow me to disconnect the HD without shutting down my system. (And even when I do that, sometimes getting the disk back after shutting down and reconnecting has been an adventure.)

 

 

 

Does anyone know of an optional driver out there that will allow a standard USB to eIDE enclosure to be recognized as a removable media by the Win2k operating system? (Such a driver would solve my problem, I think.)

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  • 1 month later...

I have an EIDE ATA 133 drive inside a USB 2.0 enclosure connected to a Win2000 pc. Mine is hotswappable, BUT before you physically unplug the drive you need to "stop" the drive. Look in the systray for an icon with a green arrow pointing down and left. If you don't see the green arrow icon in your systray, then follow the instructions in the help file below instead. Click on the icon and select to "unplug or eject" the drive in question. If you do not use this software link to stop the drive before you physically unplug the drive, then it will not be recognized by the OS when you plug it back in again later (unless in between you have rebooted). One of the downsides to using a usb external device as a backup target is that you can't use staff without security rights to stop the drive for rotation off-site. If you don't want your secy to have access to your server, you'll have to do this yourself.

 

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FROM WINDOWS 2000 HELP FILE

 

To unplug or eject devices

- Open Add/Remove Hardware in Control Panel.

- Click Next, click Uninstall/Unplug a device, and then click Next.

- Click Unplug/Eject a device, and then click Next.

- Select the device you want to unplug or eject, and then click Next.

- Click Next to confirm that you want the device unplugged or ejected.

- Click Finish.

 

 

Important

It is important to use the Add/Remove Hardware wizard before physically unplugging a device to avoid data loss or other serious malfunctions of the computer or device.

Notes

 

To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.

 

IF YOU FREQUENTLY NEED TO UNPLUG the device, be sure the Show Unplug/Eject icon on the taskbar check box is selected in the Completing the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard page. The next time you want to unplug or eject the device, you can use the icon on the taskbar instead of the Add/Remove Hardware wizard.

 

To reinstall the device, connect the device to the appropriate slot or port.

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Thanks for the response.

 

I have already tried this, several times, in several different orders.

 

Every time I try to shut down the drive this way, I get a message that the device cannot be stopped right now, and that I should try again later. This happens, no matter if I have selected the drive itself, or some subcomponent. There are no other applications that access this drive.

 

Isn't that strange?

 

As far as the security issues, I am it, as far as IT. I have no secretary - and no employees who are knowledgable enough or curious enough to get into the system on that level, so I don't really care too much. My main reason for wanting to be able to take the disk off-site is to protect against fire or physical theft.

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Quote:

Every time I try to shut down the drive this way, I get a message that the device cannot be stopped right now, and that I should try again later. This happens, no matter if I have selected the drive itself, or some subcomponent. There are no other applications that access this drive.

 


 

Well **something** is accessing the drive. Have you tried closing Retrospect before stopping the drive? If that doesn't clear the flag, then take a look in windows taskmanager (ctrl-alt-del, taskmanager) to see what applications and processes are running which might be accessing the drive. It may possibly be antivirus related. Try excluding the external drive from any scanning by your AV package. If you have a Windows Explorer session open to that drive, close it. Something has files open on the drive, or the OS would let you stop it.

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  • 2 months later...

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