can i unplug sata cables / hard drives while the pc is on?

snow patrol · 29 Jan 2011 at 11:29

here's the deal, i have 6 hdd's in my machine and i want to replace one of them with a 2 gig drive. Trouble is, i don't know where on the rack the one i want to replace is. So the easiest method would be to unplug them one at a time until i see the one i want to swap out disappear in windows explorer. Is this safe though??

PhillyDee · 29 Jan 2011 at 11:36

Nope, unless you use ACHI. Even then, you will need to use safely disconnect.

Wouldn't recommend it! You might be able to read the required drive model and serial number using a utility and use that info to choose the drive.

snow patrol · 29 Jan 2011 at 11:46

ah fair enough then, i'll do it the boring way

thanks!

rpstewart · 29 Jan 2011 at 12:32

The Intel storage tools will tell you what drive is connected to which SATA port. Just trace the cable from there.

snow patrol · 30 Jan 2011 at 00:55

rpstewart said:
The Intel storage tools will tell you what drive is connected to which SATA port. Just trace the cable from there.

how do i access these? thanks

KiiYzOo · 30 Jan 2011 at 01:02

it'll tell you in the bios

whitecrook · 30 Jan 2011 at 01:12

What OS/hardware is it? You can usually identify the ports the drives are plugged in to in Linux fairly easily from reading the boot logs etc.

edit woops just noticed 'windows explorer'

not sure how to do that in windows.. Can you put the drives to sleep. And then wake up the drive you want and you should hear/feel it power up

rgallie · 30 Jan 2011 at 08:04

Unless the drives are identical you should be able to tell whats what by sticker on the drives

jamesfreddie · 30 Jan 2011 at 11:11

I just pull sata hard drives out.