Sata Backup of Data on a Removable Drive (without AHCI).

I always wanted a fast means to backup without having to buy a motherboard with USB 3.x.

Here is how I can make fast data transfer backups without needing external hardware, hot-swapping even if your motherboard doesn't support it and taking advantage of sata3 speeds.

Step 1: The Internal Hot Swap Drive Bays.

I got from Amazon.com a dual hot swap Bay for 3.5inch drives. This Bay takes sata3 and power cables to give connection to hdd or ssd directly to the motherboard.

You Don't need ahci capable sata ports. My motherboard bios is configured in old school IDE.

Step 2: Inserting a Drive.

The hot swap drive bay comes with a clear plastic stick on plate for the underside of hdds. This is to prevent shorting of the circuitry on the hdd to the metal frame in the bay.

The hdd goes in one way. I marked it with top text.

The bottom Bay actually has my system drive which is an ssd. I locked the door to that Bay to prevent accidentally ejection of my precious drive.

Step 3: Using the Hotswap Application.

A freeware application called Hotswap allows removable sata drives to be added and removed safely into a running system.

For non ahci configured systems, to add a new drive after physical insertion, right click the tray icon and select the top item to scan for hardware changes. In 2 seconds the drive appears in Windows Explorer.

I use goodsync to backup all my data.

Once backup is done, left click the tray icon and select the only option. Safely Hotswap. After the confirmation message, the drive can be physically ejected by opening the bay door.

The nice advantage of this method is full sata3 speeds for data. Fast and easy! Or course usb 3.1 had made this method become slower but I like my pc the way it is for now.