Changable USB hard drives?
 

Is there such a thing as a USB hard drive enclosure which is hot swappable? (well not necessarily hot swappable but easily exchangable like those internal 5.25" ones for desktops)
Basically i want the ability to be able to use multiple 3.5" hard discs in a USB enclosure without having to constantly unscrew an enclosure case.

Is such a thing available? (UK store links preferable if anyone is able to find anything)

for your troubles you recieve :doggy:

Define "Hot Swappable". If you want "Easily Disconnectable", yes. If you mean "Randomly unplug and replug" that's a great way to kill a hard drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156101

I basically meant to be able to like pull out a drawer and drop in a new hard drive (think like putting a cassette in a VCR) Hot Swapping is probably the wrong term, i just meant like a USB enclosure with removable tray or something like that.

The link you gave me is a good solution, but wouldn't i require something to protect the drive rather than leaving it just lying about?

edit: something akin to this: http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...d=207&rstrat=0
but external using USB and also supporting IDE drives.

You won't find that, because while SATA is Hotpluggable, IDE is not. Even assuming you found one that was external, anything with a tray like that would be SATA-only. And companies know that if they create an easy tray, people will try hot-plugging, and they're not about to become liable for destroyed IDE hard drives.

While on here i continuted googling,
came up with something:

http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20dkrebay.html

seems to do what i want. just need to find a UK stockist now.
I have no objection disconnecting the device in windows and then turning the device off, it's just to remove the need for unscrewing etc.

Cheers for the advice.

I've used these things before, hell I've got one lying around somewhere. They do exist. But you're right, they require the machine to be shut down before you remove the drive. The ones I've used actually require it to be locked before it'll power up, and unlocked before you can remove the drive.

When you say machine do you mean the PC? as what would be the difference from me simply unmounting the drive in windows / mac os like you do with any other USB external device before you disconnect it? not all external drives are SATA right?

Yes I mean PCs. The drives I was using were PATA (Often called IDE) so they are not 'unmountable' in Windows. They did not appear as USB devices, but as real Pata (IDE) devices.