hard drive isolation

  • Thread starter Thread starter toneywho
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toneywho

I know this is a hardware question but I would like to know if by just
disconnecting the power plug to a hard drive it is isolated from the system
and reading and writing to another connected hard drive will have no effect
on either drive with the 'dead' drive connected. Thanks.
 
toneywho said:
I know this is a hardware question but I would like to know if by
just
disconnecting the power plug to a hard drive it is isolated from the
system and reading and writing to another connected hard drive will
have no effect on either drive with the 'dead' drive connected.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Of course. Usually when I want to do something on a hard drive and be
sure that it won't affect any of the other drives (like install a Vista
beta), I just disconnect both the drive cable and the power supply
cable.

This question is in the same category as "can someone get into my
computer when it is turned off". (No.)

Malke
 
I suspect the original question may be - if the power plug is disconnected,
is it okay to leave the drive cable connected? I have disconnected both
cables in the past but wondered if I could leave the drive cable connected
since it is rather hard to disconnect. Thanks for any clarification, Sam.
 
Sam said:
I suspect the original question may be - if the power plug is
disconnected,
is it okay to leave the drive cable connected? I have disconnected
both cables in the past but wondered if I could leave the drive cable
connected
since it is rather hard to disconnect. Thanks for any clarification,
Sam.
Click to expand...

Who knows if that is what the OP really wanted to know? But AFAIK it
should be fine for you to leave the ribbon cable connected and just
disconnect the power supply. See what happens.

Malke
 
toneywho said:
I know this is a hardware question but I would like to know
if by just disconnecting the power plug to a hard drive it is
isolated from the system and reading and writing to another
connected hard drive will have no effect on either drive with
the 'dead' drive connected. Thanks.
Click to expand...


In my system, I have 2 HDs on the 1st IDE channel,
and a HD in a removable tray on the 2nd IDE channel.
The 2 HDs on the 1st channel each have a DPST
toggle switch to control the power connection.
The HD on the removable tray has a key switch to
control the power connection.
All are data-connected to a PCI controller card.

I find that the power to a HD can be cut if both devices
on the channel have their power cut, and the BIOS will
only see the remaining HD(s). If I cut the power to just
one of 2 HDs on a channel, the BIOS won't see both
some times, and in those cases, won't boot.

I use the toggle switches for disconnecting the "parent"
HD when starting cloned OSes up for the1st time. I
haven't tried the system when the HDs are connected
to the motherboard IDE controller, though.

*TimDaniels*
 
Malke said:
Sam wrote:




Who knows if that is what the OP really wanted to know? But AFAIK it
should be fine for you to leave the ribbon cable connected and just
disconnect the power supply. See what happens.

Malke
Click to expand...

Because there is power being supplied over the IDE driver
cable to the PC card on the hard drive, it would be safer
to also disconnect the ribbon cable along with the power
cable. In this way, the IDE controller and the motherboard
sees nothing.
 
Ghostrider said:
Because there is power being supplied over the IDE driver
cable to the PC card on the hard drive, it would be safer
to also disconnect the ribbon cable along with the power
cable. In this way, the IDE controller and the motherboard
sees nothing.
Click to expand...


Based on my experience over the years with God-knows-how-many-hard drives,
Malke's observation is correct. I can't recall a single problem that we ever
encountered involving a HD where its power plug was disconnected from the
drive while the IDE data/signal cable remained connected. While there's
nothing inherently wrong in disconnecting *both* the IDE data cable and the
power plug from the HD, we never found that even once necessary. When we
wanted the HD to be isolated from the system we routinely disconnected its
Molex power plug - nothing else.
Anna
 
Anna said:
Based on my experience over the years with God-knows-how-many-hard drives,
Malke's observation is correct. I can't recall a single problem that we ever
encountered involving a HD where its power plug was disconnected from the
drive while the IDE data/signal cable remained connected. While there's
nothing inherently wrong in disconnecting *both* the IDE data cable and the
power plug from the HD, we never found that even once necessary. When we
wanted the HD to be isolated from the system we routinely disconnected its
Molex power plug - nothing else.
Anna
Click to expand...

The only reason I mentioned it is that I have had HD's
detected by the bios, even after the Molex power plug
had been disconnected but with the ribbon cable still
connected.
 
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