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S-ATA Disk in "safe to remove hardware" box


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Very interesting Ex-Roadie, i've never had it either. I do have it for my USB Modem but my SATA HardDrive isn't listed there. Is it just a feature of SATA II? Or does it actually have to be supported by the SATA controller(and HardDrive) too? I'm using one of the new Seagates with NCQ(what use that is with this board ;)).

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Guest burningrave101
Very interesting Ex-Roadie, i've never had it either. I do have it for my USB Modem but my SATA HardDrive isn't listed there. Is it just a feature of SATA II? Or does it actually have to be supported by the SATA controller(and HardDrive) too? I'm using one of the new Seagates with NCQ(what use that is with this board ;)).

 

All SATA/SATAII hard drives are hot swappable.

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Oh, so that's nF4-only feature?

 

Only time when I have that tray icon here is when I plug USB memory key in - No such appearance just with SATA HD here (with nF3). But then again, I don't use MFG HD controller drivers - They've usually been just waste of time and source of ugly features.

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With nf3 and nvidia sw ide drivers I have it, using ms ones it goes away.

Hmmm, so am i YET i still don't get it... In fact i've tried all different Nvidia SW IDE Drivers and never got it.

Btw, how can IDE Drivers affect a SATA HardDrive?

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I have removed and reinstalled the nVidia drivers on Aileen and the icon was there with and without the nVidia drivers.

 

I just did a clean install on Erzebet and got the icon.

 

As I think back I seem to remember an HP box that had SATA that didn't show the icon but I could just be confusing two different rigs.

 

I do know for a fact that the SATA spec calls for support of hot swap drives. This is the reason for the "Removable Hardware" icon being visible.

 

It is quite possible that there is an SATA controller that doesn't support removable hardware but I don't know of one.

 

I even installed an SATA drive in my nF2 Media PC and got the icon.

 

I'll do some futher research and possibly turn up something that I've missed in my previous studies.

 

The Mystery Continues! lol

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Thankyou Roadie. Keep us updated on your investigations, i'm very interested in this :)

 

EDIT: UPDATE

 

Right i went to Device Manager, Properties and Policies for my SATA HardDrive and i get this:

sataremoval0fe.th.jpg

 

As you can see the Write Caching & Safe Removal Options are greyed out. Wonder why...

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Just took a look at Lydia. The single SATA drive has the disk caching options under the policies tab available.

 

With the two 160GB PATA Maxtors in an array, the options under the policies tab are ghosted just like yours.

 

The single PATA drive in Erzebet has the options greyed out.

 

The two 80GB Hitachi SATA II drives in the array on Aileen the option is greyed out.

 

I'm having the same tough time finding any usefull information on the subject just like last time.

 

Thankyou Roadie. Keep us updated on your investigations, i'm very interested in this :)

 

EDIT: UPDATE

 

Right i went to Device Manager, Properties and Policies for my SATA HardDrive and i get this:

sataremoval0fe.th.jpg

 

As you can see the Write Caching & Safe Removal Options are greyed out. Wonder why...

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Well i've come to the conclusion thats its actually down to the HardDrive, it has to be Hot-Plug and Hot-Swap Capable and i'm not sure all are...

Example, read the description for this Samsung Sata at Newegg, it clearly states its Hot-Plug and Hot-Swap Capable as one of its features at the bottom of the page. Do you think they'd bother to state that if all Sata HardDrives supported that feature? Hmmm...

 

EDIT: Just found this review on the NF4 Chipset too. They make a big deal of it supporting Hot-Plug/Swap SATA. So maybe it has to be a feature of the SATA/Raid Controller too?

 

Interesting Post

 

In particular:

SATA drives are hot swapable,the problem(s) doing this however are

directly related to the RAID controller thier connected to,RAID5 has that

capability,but is only found on a server board.

Any thoughts on that Roadie?

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As I stated earlier, Hot Swap and Hot Plug are part of the SATA spec. Whether a manufacturer decides to implement it or not is up to them.

 

This might be the key info as to why some rigs show the icon and others don't.

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Yeah i think your spot on there, it definitely makes sense.

 

Anyway, i'll keep digging to see if i can find anymore info about it but as you say its not an easy task!

 

EDIT: According to this my HardDrive supports Hot-Plug/Swap. So it must be the controller...

 

Btw, it says its SATA II. I always thought my HardDrive was Sata 1...

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