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Removable IDE caddy in 5¼" drive bay

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paul.brett

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2007
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376
Location
Wisbech, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, UK
I just came across one of these during a tidy-up. It had a 340MB drive in it, which didn't seem to work.

Having stuck a spare 160Gb drive in, I'm quite surprised to find it works a treat.

I think I'll use this for off-site backups.

Not vintage ... possibly, but I just thought I share my mini-success with you guys.

Paul.
 
Thanks .. I've got a caddy in my box of bits, will give that a try soon. It came from a 486DX2-66 machine which is currently in storage.




BG
 
I have a dozen of those removable IDE racks (some are ATA/66 and above and some are for ATA 33 and older). I find the cooling fans crap out after a few years (located in the dock side). Mostly they are used in machines where I test drives, or have a couple different OS/setups for and I can just swap the drive as needed.
 
Yeah, I have about a dozen various types of them too and the fans are pretty easy to source and replace.

I don't actually USE them, they just go up on my site when I have the time to do so.
 
patscc said:
D*****d sleeve bearings.

patscc
Click to expand...

Ball bearings would have cost $.02 more so they used the cheap stuff. I don't mind them crapping out, its the ones that make a huge racket when they are dying that annoy me. And I stuff so many case fans blowing out the back of my machines that the HDs get airflow anyway.
 
Unknown_K said:
Ball bearings would have cost $.02 more so they used the cheap stuff. I don't mind them crapping out, its the ones that make a huge racket when they are dying that annoy me. And I stuff so many case fans blowing out the back of my machines that the HDs get airflow anyway.
Click to expand...


I rather like the sleeve bearings better than the ball bearings. When the sleeve bearings start to get a bit noisy, it's not very difficult to disassemble the fan and add a dab of lithium grease. After that, they're good for another few years.

The ball bearings, on the other hand, are finished when they become noisy. A drop of oil might make them run for a few days until you can get a replacement, but not much longer than that.

Kent
 
i have one still connected to this pc i'm using. the power led goes on but the hd led won't and the hd is not found by either bios or pc. i've tried number of hd's already. any probable causes of this? is it ok to turn the caddy off/on (using switchkey) while pc is running?
 
DimensionDude said:
I rather like the sleeve bearings better than the ball bearings. When the sleeve bearings start to get a bit noisy, it's not very difficult to disassemble the fan and add a dab of lithium grease. After that, they're good for another few years.

The ball bearings, on the other hand, are finished when they become noisy. A drop of oil might make them run for a few days until you can get a replacement, but not much longer than that.Kent
Click to expand...

Depends on what's called "ball bearings". The last (Chinese) fan I looked at had a prominent "ball bearing" label on it. Turned out to be a single ball used as a thrust bearing. Otherwise, the fan used simple sleeve bushings. A dab of grease works on those also.
 
paul.brett said:
I just came across one of these during a tidy-up. It had a 340MB drive in it, which didn't seem to work.

Having stuck a spare 160Gb drive in, I'm quite surprised to find it works a treat.

I think I'll use this for off-site backups.

Not vintage ... possibly, but I just thought I share my mini-success with you guys.

Paul.
Click to expand...

Heh... I have three of these myself. They're ATA/133 though. They are perfect for when you want to test drives too. I get my hands on a dozen of drives a month and I test them in a machine with these.
 
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