can i plug in a sata drive while the computer is on?

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ekuest

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 23, 2009
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i have a seagate 320GB barracuda here thats been giving me shit all day. by shit i mean when i boot it finds the drive, checks it and says its ok, then hangs up and wont keep loading the POST. it does this even when i have other drives installed with it, s i can boot on another drive either. my question is, what if i boot from another drive, and then plug this one in while the computers on and try formatting it in my computer>manage? i just dont want to break other stuff trying to fix this drive.
 
well SATA connections are hotswap, but I've had the same issue before and all I got by plugging it in after boot was a BSOD
 
I would use a USB enclosure before trying to hotswap the drive like that.
 
yeah thats the problem. this drive isnt hotswap but i figured maybe hotswap just meant it had the bracket instead of cables but the same connectors.

i dont have a usb enclosure unfortunately. :(

think itll break or ruin anything or will it just restart my computer? im fine with it not working, im just not fine with it frying my motherboard.
 
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If the drive isn't hot-swappable, Windows probably won't see it when you plug it in. USB enclosures are really cheap, and they can and do come in handy.
 
ideally id get one, yes. but right now i own like $20 so essential enough for me to get one.

no one knows if theres a chance this will break something?
 
ekuest said:
ideally id get one, yes. but right now i own like $20 so essential enough for me to get one.

no one knows if theres a chance this will break something?
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There is a chance you can break something, but if you're careful I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
ekuest said:
ok sweet ill give it a shot, and if it breaks youre giving me $30 for a new one. :D
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Ummm... Look I'll put it to you this way. I've done hotswap before, and I didn't run into problems. YMMV though.
 
I'm on an ICH10R and anytime I plug in a SATA drive while Windows is running, I get a BSOD and I have to literally unplug my computer for a seconds to get it to see the hard drives again during POST. But I've not has any lasting damage after everything's back up and going again.

(Now, the strange thing about it is that it does it when I plug in the power cable even if the data cable isn't connected yet. I've yet to figure that one out.)
 
If your controller is in AHCI mode it should work fine, just be careful poking around inside your computer while it's running. Clumsiness will not be rewarded.
 
Now, the strange thing about it is that it does it when I plug in the power cable even if the data cable isn't connected yet.
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First time I've heard of that one.

Strange.
 
ryan_975 said:
It's definitely got me confused.
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Sounds like something is wrong with your...PSU??? It shouldn't do that at all.

The computer SHOULD just detect the drive when you plug in a SATA drive while the computer is on. FWIW, I actually disconnected my MAIN SATA drive, the one that was running Windows on it. Of course, the screen froze, but as soon as the I plugged the drive back in, Windows went right back to work as if nothing happened. :D I simply got an error in the Event Log that the drive was unplugged.
 
ajm786 said:
Sounds like something is wrong with your...PSU??? It shouldn't do that at all.

The computer SHOULD just detect the drive when you plug in a SATA drive while the computer is on. FWIW, I actually disconnected my MAIN SATA drive, the one that was running Windows on it. Of course, the screen froze, but as soon as the I plugged the drive back in, Windows went right back to work as if nothing happened. :D I simply got an error in the Event Log that the drive was unplugged.
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I know it SHOULD work. And it's not the PSU. It's been fine for every other thing I throw at this system. F@H, gaming, overclocking, etc.
 
Old Hippie said:
You sure the drive's OK?
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It's not just one specific drive, it's any drive I plug in while the system is running. If I shut down first and plug it in, there's no problems.


EDIT: My intention wasn't to hi-jack this thread with a problem I don't particularly care about. Just pointing out that, while things SHOULD work fine, something can go wrong.
 
If you are not in AHCI mode I wouldn't plug in or out while PC is on.
I lost my partition once doing that... data was recovered, but it was still panic time at one point. :D
 
hey this is my thread, start your own! jk what psu do you have? maybe its not very good at voltage regulation, even though it has more than enough power. plugging in another drive might make a voltage spike that your psu doesnt like.

but seriously. i went into bios and changed it from IDE mode to AHCI mode and it wouldnt boot. turned it back to standard IDE mode and it booted up fine. is there another setting im supposed to change as well when i change to AHCI? if not then i guess im just gonna have to try the hot swap in IDE mode.
 
also, would ahci make my drives faster than ide mode? theyre 7200rpm sata drives.
 
ekuest said:
hey this is my thread, start your own! jk what psu do you have? maybe its not very good at voltage regulation, even though it has more than enough power. plugging in another drive might make a voltage spike that your psu doesnt like.

but seriously. i went into bios and changed it from IDE mode to AHCI mode and it wouldnt boot. turned it back to standard IDE mode and it booted up fine. is there another setting im supposed to change as well when i change to AHCI? if not then i guess im just gonna have to try the hot swap in IDE mode.
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Hot swap won't work in IDE mode. It has to be in AHCI mode. WHen you say it won't boot, do you mean that it starts to load windows then BSODs or reboots? If that's the case, then you make sure your SATA drivers are installed before you make the change. Even then, you may still have to reinstall Windows.


(To answer your question, I've got a Corsair TX650)

ekuest said:
also, would ahci make my drives faster than ide mode? theyre 7200rpm sata drives.
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It could since it enables NCQ on drives that support it, but it most likely won't be anything particularly noticeable.
 
ryan_975 said:
Hot swap won't work in IDE mode. It has to be in AHCI mode. WHen you say it won't boot, do you mean that it starts to load windows then BSODs or reboots? If that's the case, then you make sure your SATA drivers are installed before you make the change. Even then, you may still have to reinstall Windows.


(To answer your question, I've got a Corsair TX650)
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yeah it gets to the loading windows screen and halfway through the animation with the little colored orbs spinning and making the windows logo (this is windows 7) it just restarts. no bsod, just restarts. how do i make sure my sata drivers are installed? i think they are, which means im gonna have to reinstall my OS. not too big a deal since ive already done it like 5 times in the past week. (not exaggerating) :(
 
ekuest said:
yeah it gets to the loading windows screen and halfway through the animation with the little colored orbs spinning and making the windows logo (this is windows 7) it just restarts. no bsod, just restarts. how do i make sure my sata drivers are installed? i think they are, which means im gonna have to reinstall my OS. not too big a deal since ive already done it like 5 times in the past week. (not exaggerating) :(
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It's probably throwing a STOP exception (BSOD) but set to reboot and it does it so fast you don't actually get to see it. Anyway, if you're not worried about reinstalling, then just set it to ACHI and reinstall.
 
ryan_975 said:
It's probably throwing a STOP exception (BSOD) but set to reboot and it does it so fast you don't actually get to see it. Anyway, if you're not worried about reinstalling, then just set it to ACHI and reinstall.
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booooooo. i may have done it a bunch lately, but that doesnt make it any more fun. :( thanks for all your help ryan!
 
one more question: whats the difference between AHCI and RAID? i dont really use raid, but i could i suppose. i have 3 of the same drive around. will i be able to hotswap or will i lose any other abilities of AHCI if i decide to use RAID instead?
 
ekuest said:
one more question: whats the difference between AHCI and RAID? i dont really use raid, but i could i suppose. i have 3 of the same drive around. will i be able to hotswap or will i lose any other abilities of AHCI if i decide to use RAID instead?
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I believe RAID also enables AHCI. It just also allows you use to the RAID functions of the controller where AHCI by itself doesn't.
 
ryan_975 said:
I believe RAID also enables AHCI. It just also allows you use to the RAID functions of the controller where AHCI by itself doesn't.
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yep found that out with a quick wiki search. :) tried it by plugging in my data hard drive in with my computer running and it worked fine. then i plugged in the drive that wasnt working before and it told me to format it before i could use it. its formatting now. so in case anyone was wondering, SATA is completely hot-swappable if its in AHCI mode, which is included in RAID mode. once this is done im gonna set up some raid 0 on my 2x320GB barracudas and see how that improves speed. :cool: thanks again ryan!
 
Personally, I wouldn't hot-plug or hot-unplug a drive that's directly connected through the SATA cabling; I'd be worried that the connectors might go on/off lopsided and mess things up. That's why I use hot-swap trays so the connectors are always aligned.
 
SockMan! said:
Personally, I wouldn't hot-plug or hot-unplug a drive that's directly connected through the SATA cabling; I'd be worried that the connectors might go on/off lopsided and mess things up. That's why I use hot-swap trays so the connectors are always aligned.
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lop-sided? They can only go on straight and the pins inside them are designed so that they connect in a specific order after the parts have engaged each other. The hot swap trays are simply a convenience.
 
Yea but you can always jiggle the cables a bit, and un-plug / plug them in at an angle... I also have a bad feeling when I do that, that's why I would also use a cradle or hotswap enclosure for this
 
ryan_975 said:
lop-sided? They can only go on straight and the pins inside them are designed so that they connect in a specific order after the parts have engaged each other. The hot swap trays are simply a convenience.
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I'm going with ryan.....

Most modern hot-swap methods use a specialized connector with staggered pins, so that certain pins are certain to be connected before others.

The trays are a convenience. ;)

BTW....
Yea but you can always jiggle the cables a bit, and un-plug / plug them in at an angle
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That may be defeating the purpose of the staggered pins and cause you more harm than good......?
 
ryan_975 said:
It's not just one specific drive, it's any drive I plug in while the system is running. If I shut down first and plug it in, there's no problems.
.
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Could this be somekinda "safety" feature or just a fluke with your unit?

If ypu really wanted to find the problem, I'd start by swapping PSs.
 
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