Hot swapping Sata drives

[jtcbr]

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions about hot swapping sata drives. I've tried searching, but I haven't really found an answer I feel comfortable with to do it.

Is it possible to plug in a sata drive while the computer is on internally with the sata cable and power cable and have the computer recognize it? Does it depend on the motherboard and bios setting?

If it's safe to hook up while the computer is on, then it should be safe to unhook it so long as nothing is accessing it right?

I have a Asus p5k-e motherboard and I am running XP.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Syntax Error]

AHCI allows for hot-swapping. So go through your motherboard and look up AHCI settings; however, this will BSOD Windows on startup, which means enabling AHCI requires a reformat with F6 to install SATA AHCI drivers for Windows on reinstall.

 

[jtcbr]

Thanks.

I guess I can reload or find an external enclosure. I stumbled upon http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831 while looking up AHCI since I didn't know what it is. Contemplating whether to try it or not. I have the exact chipset as him, but just a different board.