Is it harmful for IDE drives........?

tmy 2006-05-12 18:24:01 UTC #1

Hi everyone

I wanna know is it harmful for IDE drives (HDD/DVDRW/CDRW) to be connected with IDE cable while power cable is disconnected?

For example:

Primary Master: HDD
Primary Slave: HDD

Secondary Master: DVDRW
Secondary Slave: Combo DVD/CDRW

Suppose the power cable has been removed from Primary Slave & Secondary Slave drives while the IDE cable is kept connected.
And the PC is powered up and used as normal for long period.( probably24/7)

Thanks in adavnce!

crossg 2006-05-12 18:58:42 UTC #2

I can only say for my system that I have no problems. I have four hard drives installed but only normaly run one so I just unplug the power and leave the IDE cables connected on the drives not in use and haven't encountered any issues so far.
Two are S ATA drives so it's not a problem with master and slave and my two P ATA are on a onboard Promise controller that always goes to master if there is no power to the other drive. Hope this makes sense.

tmy 2006-05-13 06:05:12 UTC #3

I googled and read some hardware books but couldnt find specific answer for above question.

A technical answer will be appreciated.

@crossg

Thanks for your reply.

I assume it to be harmless for IDE/SATA drives.

Well Thanks again crossg!!!

debro 2006-05-13 20:20:50 UTC #4

Yes & no.

There is power flowing through the IDE cable for signalling, but it's not powering the devices motors, so it will only be small currents, and it's unlikely that you will damage the device.

But at the same time, you have the motherboard supplying the device, and simply unplugging it while the pC is on can cause a voltage spike on the ide chain, which can damage the motherboard, or other device attached to the IDE chain.

Either way. Don't do it. Turn the damn PC off before disconnecting your devices.

weedougie 2006-05-14 01:38:54 UTC #5

Yes :iagree: :iagree: this is best practice and should always be followed.

greg42 2006-05-14 13:09:58 UTC #6

There is absolutely no danger to your drives - as stated do so when your PC is switched off - and if you do so you might want to go into your BIOS and temporarily disable whichever drives you have put out of commission

tmy 2006-05-16 16:37:54 UTC #7

Thank you all for your comments!

Offcourse I will disconnet power cable from Ide drives when pc is in Off state.

debro 2006-05-16 17:25:24 UTC #8

I think you missed the point.

Turn the PC off before disconnecting the IDE cable too, not just the power cables.

evdama 2006-05-17 04:37:39 UTC #9

IDE were not intended as hot swappable like sata or usb.
I once inadvertantly pulled out the molex from a brand new maxtor .A spark jumped across and zapped the drive,wiping out the data upon it.I managed to repair the drive with powermax but the data was all gone.
I learned a painful lesson but its your kit and your choice...............

tmy 2006-05-17 20:09:21 UTC #10

Thanks m8 for helpfull suggestions.