We recently received a call from a customer who was looking for a sealed unit with accessible drive bays and his research turned up SmallPC as the only company that provides this specific functionality.

Our SC240ML, a computing unit fully sealed to IP67 specifications, has on the back a removable (and sealed) drive bay cover with thumbscrews, behind which is one or two drive bays with removable drives. The drive bays (or shuttles) feature a spring-loaded door which ejects the 2.5” solid state drive enough to pull it out of the enclosure and, when closed, pushes on the drive to maintain secure connection to the SATA 3 ports. The shuttle door also features a lock with a key, which provides some added physical security for critical data storage. The accessible and hot-swappable drive bay is also available in the SC240S and SC240ST (without the IP67 rating) and also in all of our sealed rugged LCD PCs (SDC150, SDC170, etc).

So why is this useful?

A lot of our customers use the SC240ML and other sealed units in harsh environments to collect and aggregate data so the removable drives provide an easy way to remove data drives without having to open the unit up and compromise its seal or bother with removable media.

The other standout application for the dual drive bay is the ability to use RAID1 – redundancy in your data. If you are running critical systems and need to be sure the data on the drive will not be lost in case of irreversible drive failure, RAID1 provides peace of mind and the accessible drive bays allow you to remove a drive in the event of failure and replace it without more hassle.

The final application is the ability to quickly swap drives with different operating systems. In as little as 30 seconds, you can remove a drive with Windows 11 on it, replace with a Ubuntu drive for a different application and get booting into the OS without using any tools in minutes.

In the SC240ML you can pair this hot-swappable dual drive functionality with the latest Intel Core i9 CPU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and Windows 11 – in a fanless, fully sealed package – for the ultimate computing workhorse! Or you can use it in a rugged LCD PC with a touchscreen for those applications that require that kind of input capability.

If you are running an application that requires periodic collection or aggregation of data in harsh environments, if you are running critical systems that need RAID1 functionality, or if you are simply looking for a way to easily access, alter, or swap out the OS drive – the SC240ML is the perfect solution. Fill out our RFQ or contact form, connect with us on Twitter, call us at 877-505-5022, or email us for more details!

Happy new year 2023!

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