How to Setup a Removable Hard Drive

You can use removable hard drives as part of your overall backup and data protection plan. Removable hard drives allow you to take data offsite for safekeeping.

How can you integrate removable hard drives into your Backup for Workgroups installation? We recommend that you use the Backup for Workgroups Mirror feature to replicate your Data Repository to removable hard drive which allow you to store a copy of your backup data off-site.

You can convert any standard hard drive into a removable hard drive.  And to justify the cost of our new digital camera, we will show you how!  And using hard drives as your Mirror rotation media over tape is both convenient and economical.  Hard drives are cheaper than tapes on a per gigabyte basis and a single hard drive can hold the equivalent of a stack of tapes.

Follow these steps to install and use a removable hard drive

1. Items you need to get started
2. Install the drive cage in the computer
3. Install the hard drive in the removable drive tray
4. Partition and format the new hard drive
5. Switching the removable hard drive
6. Best practices

Step 1 - Items you need to get started

To convert a standard hard drive into a removable drive you need 2 items:

• A standard hard drive.
  (You can use SCSI or IDE, but we recommend IDE because the cages to hold IDE drives are easier to find and cost less.)
  
  You should select a hard drive that has the same capacity or more than the drive you are currently using on the Data Repository computer to hold the backup data.  If you do not have an available hard drive, you can buy a new drive from many sources such as www.insight.com, www.cdw.com, www.pcmall.com, etc.
  
  

• A removable drive cage.
  There are 2 parts to the drive cage: you will mount one part into your computer and it plugs into an available IDE cable, and the second part holds your hard drive in a tray.  When you insert the tray holding your hard drive into the cage within your computer, it connects the drive to your IDE cable and your computer can now access this drive.

Removable drive cages can be purchased where you buy other computer hardware parts. For our example, we will use a standard IDE hard drive and a mobile dock from InClose. We will add this to a computer with an existing hard drive.

When setting up a removable drive to serve as a mirror, we suggest leaving the existing hard drive that is in your computer in place, and just add the removable drive as a second drive. This way your computer continues to operate normally when the removable drive has been removed.

Step 2 – Install the drive cage in the computer

1. Select a computer that has an available 5 1/4" drive bay that is in the front of the computer. This is typically immediately above or below a CD-ROM drive.
   
   

2. Shut down this computer and unplug it to be sure there is no power going to the computer during the modifications.
   
   

3. Remove the case of the computer and determine which drive bay you are going to use. Also, determine which devices are connected by the IDE cables. It is very common for most motherboards to support 4 IDE devices. These 4 devices are grouped in pairs. Each pair has a cable that leads from the motherboard to one or two devices at the maximum. It is very common to find one IDE cable that leads to the CD-ROM drive, and another that leads to your existing hard drive.
   


(Step # 3 -Remove the case of the computer)

If there is exactly one device connected to an IDE cable it is called a master. If there are 2 devices connected to an IDE cable, then one device has to be declared a master and the other a slave.   It does not matter which is which, only that they cannot both be the same. The determination of master vs. slave is done through a jumper on the backup of the device near the power source plug.  A jumper is a small plastic rectangle that fits over 2 pegs on the back of the devices.  (See the documentation that came with your new hard drive for more information on jumpers and jumper settings.)

4. Determine which IDE cable you will use to connect to the new drive cage. If the best place for the new drive cage is immediately above or below the CD-ROM, you may want to use the cable that is connected to the CD-ROM drive (assuming that this cable is connected only to the CD-ROM and drive and no other device).
   
   

5. If you select to add the drive cage to a cable that has an existing device, then you should make a note of this for future reference. You will need to make sure that the device that is currently connected to the IDE cable has its jumper on the setting for “master”.
   
   

6. Once you have determined the location of the drive cage and what cable it will connect to, you will need to open that drive bay up. Typically there is a cover over the drive bays that pop off either by snaps, friction, or tabs. Remove the drive bay cover.
   
   

7. Insert the mobile dock drive cage into the available drive bay in your computer.  Fasten the mobile dock drive cage into place with the 4 screws provided with the cage.
   
   
   
   (Step # 7 - Insert the mobile dock drive)
   
   

8. Connect the IDE cable to the back of the drive cage. Connect a power supply lead from your power supply to the back of the drive cage.
   
   
   (Step # 8 - Connect the IDE cable)
   
   

9. Put the cover backup on the computer, and plug it back in. DO NOT TURN THE COMPUTER ON.

Step 3 – Install the hard drive into the removable drive tray 

1. Before installing the new drive into the drive tray, you should make sure the jumpers on the drive are set correctly. This is the best time to do this since, once you install the drive in the tray, the jumpers will be hard to access.
   
   If the cable you connected to the drive cage in the process of installing the drive cage above was connected to another device, you will need to set this new drive as a “slave”.
   
   If the cable you connected to the drive cage above is only connected to the mobile dock drive cage, then you can leave the hard drive settings at the factory defaults, which is usually neither master nor slave or it is set to master specifically.
   
   

2. Hold the drive upside down such that the back of the drive is next to the back of the removable drive tray.  Connect the power supply lead from the drive tray to the hard drive and connect the IDE cable to the hard drive.
   
   
   
   (Step # 2 - Connect the power supply)
   

3. Rotate the drive around and insert it into the drive tray. Fasten the drive in place with the 4 screws provided by the drive tray manufacturer.
   
   
   (Step # 3 - Insert the drive in the drive tray)
   
4. Place the cover on the drive tray.
   
   

You should now have your new hard drive in a removable drive tray, and your computer should contain the drive cage.

While the power to the computer is OFF, slide the drive tray into the drive cage.

Use the key provided to lock the drive into place.

You can now turn the power ON and boot the computer.  Windows will typically not notice the new drive until it is partitioned and formatted.

Step 4 - Partition and format the new hard drive

For Windows 95 / 98 / ME:

1. You will need to run fdisk to partition the new drive. Press the Start  button, click on Programs, then  Accessories, then choose Command Prompt / MS-DOS Prompt..

2. At the C:\WINDOWS command prompt type:  fdisk.

3. When fdisk runs, you should see a screen with 5 options. The last option (option 5) should state to switch drives. If you only see 4 options and the last option is not to switch drives, then your computer did not see the new drive. You will need to troubleshoot your drive, and possible review your bios settings until you do see 5 options in fdisk.
   
   For more information on your bios settings, please contact your computer manufacturer (as bios settings can differ from computer to computer).

4. When you do see the option (option 5) to switch drives, select number 5 and switch to the second drive.

5. Select 1 to create a primary or extended partition.

6. Select 2 to create and extended partition and assign all available disk space to this extended partition.

7. When asked to assign a drive to this partition, select the default size recommend to assign the entire partition to a single drive. Make note of the drive letter that fdisk assigns to this new drive.

8. Exit fdisk by pressing the Esc key.

9. Format the new partition by typing:  format x:
   
   Replace the “x:” with the drive letter that fdisk assigned to this new drive in step 7 above.

10. When the formatting is complete you can close the DOS shell by typing:  exit

 For Windows NT / 2000 / XP / 2003:

1. Right Click on the My Computer icon and choose Manage.

2. Under the Storage Category, select Disk Management.

When you have completed setting up the new drive and it is formatted, you will want to create a folder on this new drive. This folder will be used hold the Data Repository mirror. If you have installed this removable drive on your Data Repository computer, then run the Data Repository Manager and configure mirroring to use this new folder on the new removable drive.

If you installed the removable drive on a computer other than your Data Repository computer, you will want to share this folder on your network. Then you can go to the Data Repository computer, run the Data Repository Manager, and configure mirroring to use the computer and share name that you created on the computer containing the removable drive.

Step 5 - Switching the removable hard drive

It is important to note that most computers cannot handle switching the removable drives while the computer is running. Typically these drives are removable, but not "hot swappable". (A hot swappable drive can be removed from a computer while it is running.)  You will need to power down the computer when you change the drives. The best steps to perform this are as follows:

1. Go to the Data Repository computer and run the Data Repository Manager.

2. On the Mirror panel, press the Pause button.  This stops the Data Repository from accessing the mirror.

3. Go to the computer holding the removable drive that you are using to hold the mirror and shut down the computer.

4. When the power to the computer is OFF, use the key that came with the removable drive cage and unlock the drive tray.

5. Pull out the drive tray and replace the tray with a new tray that contains the drive you wish to swap with the old one.

6. Lock the new drive cage into place using the key.

7. Turn the computer ON.

8. Return to the Data Repository computer. Go to the mirror panel on the Data Repository Manager, and press the “Continue” button.

Store the old removable drive holding you current mirror information in a safe location preferably at a different location than your Data Repository.

Step 6 - Best practices

To fully incorporate media rotation into your overall backup plan, you should buy a few hard drives and removable drive trays. Place each drive in its own tray, then cycle through the drives, partitioning the drives and formatting the drives. Setup the identical folder name on the drives so that each looks exactly the same when they are installed in the computer. If you are using a share folder, make sure you use the exact same share name for each drive.

Store the extra drives off site and periodically switch the drive in the computer with one that you bring in from offsite. Store the drive that you remove offsite to facilitate disaster recovery planning.