Andrew Wilson said:
Running WinXP with SP3.
I currently have two hard disks (C, F). One of them is a clone (F) using
Norton Ghost software. My question is can a motherboard problem/failure
trash one/both hard disks? If it can is it better to remove the data cable
from the cloned hard disk (F) so that it can't be accessed? I only boot
from (C) normally.
Many thanks
Andrew Wilson
PS Happy New Year and thanks for all the help you gave in 2009
Andrew...
While there's always a possibility of any storage device installed/connected
in the system becoming defective (even when that device is not being
currently utilized by the system) because of some untoward event occurring
in the system, the chances of this happening (based upon our experience over
a fair number of years with a few thousand PC systems) are slight, if not
rare, indeed.
If the very few cases that we've come across where an internally-connected
HDD (primary or secondary or both) became defective even though the disk was
not being utilized at the time, the cause was invariably a result of a power
surge affecting the entire system. Frankly, I can't recall a single instance
where a motherboard failure due to a non-power related event caused a HDD to
become defective. Understand we're not talking about a corruption of data
problem, rather component failure. There's *always* a possibility of data
corruption/loss when a major component (such as a motherboard) fails.
Anyway, for more or less absolute security we generally do recommend that
the HDD serving as the recipient of the clone be disconnected from the
system. As a practical matter it's generally advisable to use a USB or eSATA
external enclosure to house the "destination" drive. Where a desktop PC is
involved we strongly recommend the use of removable HDDs (mobile racks) when
practicable. Then you get the best of all possible worlds in this type of
situation.
If you feel more comfortable in disconnecting your internally-connected
cloned HDD it would be best to disconnect its power connector.
Anna
