Question 1

Does this product mount in the optical drive bay?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it fits just fine in a standard 5.25 drive bay. It is a nice unit and I would buy another.  If I designed it, I would have placed a power on/off switch on the face panel, or made the key-lock have an on/off switch.  I use multiple drives/OSes for different purposes and I have to remove the drive from the unit to turn it off.  I still recommend it.

Question 2

Can you provide details about the SATA interface connector?  Does the HDD PCB (part of HDD) contacts get slide-wear each time you insert?, or does the rack have a built in connector for sata that "takes the wear" during each HDD swap?

Accepted Answer

The SATA interface connector is a plugin that goes from the HD swap to a open SATA port on your motherboard (cable included) There is also a power cable that goes from the 4pin connection to a SATA power source & status indicator. Inside of the swap bay it is just like it is in an external HD enclosure. There is a connector that is opposite of the 5.25" HD connector.

I am not sure if I answered your question appropriately & thoroughly, but I hope this helps. FYI: I say buy it! It is very worth it, and is very useful!!!!

Question 3

Does anyone know if the key turns the drive off when set to the 'open' position even with the drive in/door closed?

Accepted Answer

The drive will turn off when the door is OPENED.  This is regardless of the lock's position.  Once the latch is opened (even slightly, it is very sensitive), a bar kicks the drive off of the connectors in the back of the bay, disconnecting the drive, turning it off.

Question 4

I Would like to upgrade my system to a 2.5" SSD using this Rack.  
Can my task be accomplished with 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter tray that is compatible with this item?  Any recommendations for best tray?  Thank you.

Accepted Answer

I bought 4 of these for 2 computers.  They are a standard design that works, though improvements could be made to keep the drives cooler and eject a little better.

There is no fan so drives heat similar to being permanently attached to the case.  Temperatures above 50c tend to reduce drive life.  I've left parts of the case open with fans sitting on the drive to reduce temperature somewhat.  A good case with a solid cooling system is essential.

Secondly the ejection system is middle of the road.  The racks door opens easily.  It has a rod that moves from the hinge of the door to the rear of the drive.  That rod moves a device at the back that pushes the drive away from the SATA connector, shoving the drive out a little ways.  One can then grasp the drive and remove it.  A little awkward.  Inserting the drive uses the same mechanical process in reverse.  As the rod moves forward it pushes the door closed.  This means one must push the drive in from the keyed side of the opening with ones fingers to ensure a snug fit on the SATA connector.  Would have been better design to provide a handle that connects directly to the drive without a door.  Less reliance on a 3 piece mechanical insert / remove design.  As for 2.5 drives?  No info.

Question 5

How do I get hot swapping to work?

I just bought and installed this tray. It works fine if I insert a hard disk while the computer is off, but basically it think it's an internal hard disk, so there's no "eject" or "safely remove hardware" option that I can see. If I insert a drive while the computer is on, the hard drive powers up (I can hear it spin), but doesn't appear to be recognized by Windows. How do I get the hot swapping to work?
In one of the customer reviews, there was a mention of enabling hot swapping in my bios, but my bios doesn't have an option like that. Any ideas?

Accepted Answer

I have an ASUS Crosshair V mother board and I had to go into the SATA settings in the BIOS and enable the SATA port that the Mibile RAck was plugged into to an external port and everything works just fine.  If you have a manufactured computer made by one of the major manufactures then it may or may not have that function in the BIOS.  If you have thoroughly gone through the SATA settings in your BIOS and find no way to set the SATA port you are using to an external port then you might be out of luck unless you can find some king of software by doing a search on google.

Question 6

After a few years of use, this stopped recognizing 3TB disk (2TB was fine), and after I upgraded to Windows 10, it stopped recognizing any disks completely.  Any suggestions?

Accepted Answer

This is just a rack with no logic.  If you think it is bad then just hook a regular SATA cable to your drive.  Be aware that hot swapping must be supported by your MB.  Also go to administrative tools and check what the status of the drive is.

Question 7

The product states 6GB/s however the sticker on the front of the device says 3GB/s. What gives??

Accepted Answer

This is only a connector to plug in a hard drive.  The speed will be whatever the hard drive can do.  At present hard drives can not do 6gb/s only SSD drives can.   Most SSD SATA drives are 2.5 inch drives SATA 3.5 inch drives may say that they are 6gb/s but hard drives as of right now can only do 3gb/s.  If you want a trayless hot swap unit for a 3.5" SATA hard drive this unit will do what you want.

Question 8

Will this work with a 4 TB drive? The description says up to 3 TB but I don't see why it wouldn't work with 4 TB.

Accepted Answer

I don't know if it would work with a 4 TB drive but the hot swap rack is only connectors and guide rails for a 3.5" hard drive.  So, so long as your 4 TB drive comes in that package it should work.  In other words there is no circuit board with IC chips on it in the rack.

Question 9

Has anyone used this to mount the Rosewill 3.5" card readers?  I bought one not knowing that they wouldn't rack comfortably in the front of my tower.  It's really unuseful INSIDE my case, so I'd like to know if buying this would solve my problem(it's still cheaper than buying the 5.25" one).

Accepted Answer

The SATA trayless hot swap is intended to allow a 3.5" drive to mount in a 5.25" drive slot in a tower.  There is no open front end once the drive unit is inserted into the tower.  I don't see how you could use this to allow cards to be inserted into the reader after you mounted the reader into the trayless rack.  Just buy a 5.25" to 3.5" drive mounting kit the kits are like $5.00.

Questions & Answers