Hi,

I intend to get a Promise SATA300 TX2plus controller [1] and a RaidSonic
IB-169SK-B swap enclosure [2] to make a backup solution. I want to insert
the drive into the enclosure (hotplug), mount it, copy the data, umount it
and remove it (hotplug).

Since hotplug is optional in the SATA specs and the mentioned controller
doesn't advertize to support it I wondered if I have to buy one of the more
expensive SATA-RAID controllers that do advertize hotplugging.

It seems there is some basic hotplug support due to the design of the SATA
connectors even when not explicitly stated. I read about some hotplug
framework on Linux which was developed and tested on the 150 MB/s version
of the controller mentioned above. There's also a swap enclosure made by
Promise which is said to support hotplug even with the non-RAID
controllers.[3] However this might also be some special feature due to both
devices coming from the same manufaturer.

So can I use the backup procedure outlined above with a controller not
explicitly supporting hotplug?

Please CC me on reply.

Bye, Chris

[1]
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=138
[2]
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/mobile-racks.php?we_objectID=4342
[3]
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Drive%20Enclosures&product_id=113
The datasheet states that more specific:
http://www.promise.com/marketing/datasheet/file/1SS1100_DS_0206.pdf