Quick ? about SATA HDD's

rage4order

Gawd
Joined
Oct 4, 2004
Messages
795
I was wondering if it is safe to plug in an SATA hard drive into my computer while it's on, or should I shut it down? I hope that's not too dumb of a question... :eek: :D
 
SATA is hotswappable! Go ahead, your only worry is being in the case and touching something else, so be cautious!
 
Ok, just wanted to make sure before I jacked something up. Thanks.

Just make sure that AHCI or RAID is enabled in the BIOs. In fact, make sure that you had install your OS while AHCI was enabled. If not, you may not be able to hot-swap AND you might screw up the OS a little.
 
Its possible to still enable AHCI after you've installed your Windows OS, mainly with Vista, but with XP its a bit tricky and doesn't always work. Hm... I can't find the link I usually use with that statement, hehe.
 
It's kind of tricky with both from my experiences. It's always a good idea to install the OS with AHCI enabled from the start.
 
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