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Thread ID: 46840 2004-07-07 07:05:00 HDD cradles Tom McB (832) Press F1
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250422 2004-07-07 07:05:00 I wish to muck around with our second (old P233/192MB) PC and use it to check out Linux, various browsers, learn new languages etc. Rather than running dual boot, I was thinking of installing a HDD cradle/tray and swap the disks in and out. The 10G will be reformatted with w98se, office, netscape - pretty basic and will be the 'default' config. The 'play' 1G disk can be pretty much anything. What do you think?
Many thanks
t
Tom McB (832)
250423 2004-07-07 07:20:00 Do you mean using one of these? (www.dse.co.nz). As long as you have a spare 5.25" drive bay, they are great. You can have two separate OS's that share the one machine without having to dual boot. It is a good way to experiment without ever running the risk of corrupting your main OS/setup. The trays are easy to install and use.

>The 'play' 1G disk can be pretty much anything. What do you think?

If you would like to play with Linux, I would suggest getting a larger second hand HDD - say minimum of 10 gig as well.
Jen C (20)
250424 2004-07-07 07:21:00 Sounds like a great idea - DSE have these cradles but they appear to be winding stocks down and not re-stocking.
R2
R2x1 (4628)
250425 2004-07-07 07:25:00 Oh, forgot to mention. If you get another HDD, leave the old 1 gig in as a permanent slave drive. This way you can use it to save data/files that you wish to be accessible between the two Master HDD's (say Win98se and Linux). Make sure it is formatted with a filesystem that can be read/written to by both OS's involved (eg FAT) Jen C (20)
250426 2004-07-07 07:26:00 Yup, something like that. Yeah, the 1G was when I first got the machine way back '95 and it was more than enough (LOL). Will check out a bigger drive.
Anyway, thanks for the quick reply Jen.
Regards to all.
t
Tom McB (832)
250427 2004-07-07 08:29:00 Yep, excellent idea. :-)

As mentioned, you will need a larger hard drive for Linux though. I also agree with Jen's suggestion of using the 1gig as a data drive so that you can access it from whichever caddy/OS you are using at the time. That is very handy, especially for saving and using bookmarks when browsing.


R2x1: How do you know that DSE are phasing out the removable caddies and not replacing them? I hope they're not! :O
Susan B (19)
250428 2004-07-07 09:13:00 I've been considering using a removable hard drive for backups as Cd-ROM's are getting too fiddly for the volume of data I need to save. Can anybody give me advice as to whether I would be better off with a USB external drive or one of these cradle set-ups? Wicked Willie (889)
250429 2004-07-07 09:19:00 > Sounds like a great idea - DSE have these cradles but
> they appear to be winding stocks down and not
> re-stocking.

I think you'll find they're selling out the old stock before bringing in the stuff with the new Logo/packaging - they seemed to do that here a couple of months ago, and now they've got a fairly good stock of the drive trays etc.

Mike.
Mike (15)
250430 2004-07-07 09:20:00 > me advice as to whether I would be better off with a
> USB external drive or one of these cradle set-ups?

Well these are way cheaper than USB external drives . It's what I use to swap in and out drives (I have more drives than I can handle at the moment ;))

Mike .
Mike (15)
250431 2004-07-07 09:27:00 I was enquiring of these at St. Lukes DSE recently and the assistant remarked they were cleaning out all stocks, and it might not be possible to get one. They did get one in, promptly, with two extra carriers, and made my friend a happy chappie.
He wanted to do a similar thing, though the antique computer was at his work; he already had a unit installed at home, so now he just carries a hdd and tray home at night instead of an overweight laptop.
Hope they are not going out of stock :)
R2
R2x1 (4628)
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