Hard Drive Switches: Multiple Hard Drive Switch - Indus Technologies Inc. Hard Drive Switches

Design, manufacturing and multiple hard drive switch sales. Changing the way people use computers using hard drive switches

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Could the devices be selected remotely by another machine?
I have 5 hard drives in my computer. Two are serial ATA hard drives and three ultra ATA. Will the IDEX switch allow me to have the two serial ATA booting together as a master and slave, the two ultra ATA booting together as master and slave, and the last one booting alone? What do I need to make this possible?
Do any of your products switch not only between hard drives but also turn on or off ethernet connections (high speed internet)? I would like to use my computer on the internet, but I cannot afford to have one of my hard drives connected to the internet and exposed to possible viruses.
I have a question concerning Serial ATA drives and power. Switching between ATA and Serial ATA works - if I were trying to leverage two Serial ATA’s setup as a RAID as (the ASUS mother boards we like around here support this as each Serial ATA drive has its own channel) the only way I see to make the 400 do this is to “Y” power connection to the drives >from the IDEX 400. Will doing this possibly overload the power switching circuit on the IDEX 400? I am assuming it wouldn’t but would prefer to ask.
Boot error: PXE-E61 Media Test Failure - Check Cable.

Could the devices be selected remotely by another machine?

The remote control feature is primarily for use in a classroom environment, so the only control method that we sell is a manual device. You can see it at http://www.industechnologies.com/master.html. The pinout information (link on same page) is provided so customers can develop their own remote control systems if they prefer. There are numerous off-the-shelf computer control products that could be used for this purpose.

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I have 5 hard drives in my computer. Two are serial ATA hard drives and three ultra ATA. Will the IDEX switch allow me to have the two serial ATA booting together as a master and slave, the two ultra ATA booting together as master and slave, and the last one booting alone? What do I need to make this possible?

Either the IDEX 400 A or IDEX 410 A will handle this arrangement. You will also need to replace one ATA ribbon cable with an ATA cable with three connectors and buy 2 y-splitters for the power cables.

You must have two serial ATA ports and one IDE port on the motherboard. Connect “Drive 1” power to both Serial ATA drives using a Y-splitter to power both from the one connector. (The power relays on the 400 and 410 will safely power two drives.) Connect the data cables directly to the two SATA ports.

Connect “Drive 2” power to both of the two ultra-ATA drives, again using a Y-splitter. Use the data cable with 3 connectors for these drives. Connect this cable to a BusX board on the header cable.

“Drive 3” power would go to the single ultra-ATA drive. Connect this drive as in a standard IDEX switch installation described in the installation manual.

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Do any of your products switch not only between hard drives but also turn on or off ethernet connections (high speed internet)? I would like to use my computer on the internet, but I cannot afford to have one of my hard drives connected to the internet and exposed to possible viruses.

You can easily accomplish what you want by using an IDEX hard drive switch to switch between your two drives and disabling the ethernet port in the settings on second drive. You do not need to physically disconnect the port to be secure.

To disable the port:
right click on the "My Network Places" icon and select "Properties"
right click on the ethernet adaptor icon and select "Disable".

You can also add an extra layer of protection by:
right click on "My Network Places" and select "Properties"
right click on the ethernet adaptor icon an select "Properties"
unselect all of the protocols (TCP/IP is the only one you really need - but you might as well turn them all off.).

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I have a question concerning Serial ATA drives and power. Switching between ATA and Serial ATA works - if I were trying to leverage two Serial ATA’s setup as a RAID as (the ASUS mother boards we like around here support this as each Serial ATA drive has its own channel) the only way I see to make the 400 do this is to “Y” power connection to the drives >from the IDEX 400. Will doing this possibly overload the power switching circuit on the IDEX 400? I am assuming it wouldn’t but would prefer to ask.

The relays in the power circuit are rated at 5 Amps (printed on the relay) so you could put numerous hard drives on one circuit depending on the drives. Most newer hard drives are rated at approximately .5 Amps so as long as the total of all the drives connected is less than 5 Amps, on both the 5V and 12V circuit, you are OK. Unless you are using some unusual hard drives, the power rating should be printed on the label. If not, just do a Google search of the part number to get the specs.

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Boot error: PXE-E61 Media Test Failure - Check Cable.

PXE is a Windows “Pre-Boot eXecution Environment”. Its primary purpose is to provide the ability to boot from a network using your lan card if you have one. You should not have it enabled. There should be some option in the BIOS that specifies booting from an IDE hard drive. That would be the setting that you should be using.

An other possible cause could be a miss-wiring of the Control and Power cables. This has happened before and may be what is causing your problem. The “Drive 1” Control and Power cables must go to the same drive. You can check if this is the problem by connecting the power cables directly so all drives power up. If the PC boots you know you have the power cables crossed.

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