Hard-drive cabling question.

TteFAboB · 01-11-08, 11:56 AM

Greetings, mighty geeks,

I have a slave hard drive on a PC I don't want people fiddling with. I cannot remove it from the PC and store it yet as I am waiting for an external USB adapter thingie to arrive, and I really have no decent place to store it right now other than in the PC case itself.

Unfortunately it's an IDE, and the IDE cable is impossibe to reach without removing the screws and pulling the HDD out. So to save me the trouble of unscrewing and screwing it back on, I had a brilliant idea: I can reach for the power cable easily, how about I just disconnect the power cable and leave the IDE cable attached?

Can I do this? Will it destroy or damage the HDD or put data at risk? Will it glitch the booting of the PC? Perfect safety is only a few screws away, I know, but hey, it takes even less time to read your reply, unless you're Skybird.

sonar732 · 01-11-08, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

Greetings, mighty geeks,

I have a slave hard drive on a PC I don't want people fiddling with. I cannot remove it from the PC and store it yet as I am waiting for an external USB adapter thingie to arrive, and I really have no decent place to store it right now other than in the PC case itself.

Unfortunately it's an IDE, and the IDE cable is impossibe to reach without removing the screws and pulling the HDD out. So to save me the trouble of unscrewing and screwing it back on, I had a brilliant idea: I can reach for the power cable easily, how about I just disconnect the power cable and leave the IDE cable attached?

Can I do this? Will it destroy or damage the HDD or put data at risk? Will it glitch the booting of the PC? Perfect safety is only a few screws away, I know, but hey, it takes even less time to read your reply, unless you're Skybird.

Subman and his vast cabling knowledge might say otherwise, but I've never ran into problems with an IDE cable situation like this.

EDIT:Can you post a picture of your case? This sounds like the case from hell as all of the cabling should be within reach w/o that much trouble. I might suggest getting rounded cabling also if your case is that much of a headache.

SUBMAN1 · 01-11-08, 12:01 PM

Depends how tight the HD power is in the hard drive. SOme are near impossible to get out with the cable out anyway. Some and easy and remove easy. If you're paranoid - do it the right way.

-S

PS. Oops - I see what you are trying to do. Remove the IDE cable too by the way, otherwise your system may wait forever trying to read from it.

geetrue · 01-11-08, 12:19 PM

I know you are doing this with a regular HDD ATA, but if you ever get a system that has SATA ... do not plug/unplug the SATA cable form the HDD or the motherboard with the power cord in ...

All kinds of strange things happen to the power supply ... I was in a hurry and by passed that simple safety rule last year.

TteFAboB · 01-11-08, 12:27 PM

The slave HDD is stuck between the top of the case and the CD/DVD drives. Since the drives are longer than the HDD, the little thing doesn't stick out like it should when you install it where it's supposed to be.

Damn it then, seems I'll have to unscrew the damn thing.

sonar732 · 01-11-08, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

The slave HDD is stuck between the top of the case and the CD/DVD drives. Since the drives are longer than the HDD, the little thing doesn't stick out like it should when you install it where it's supposed to be.

Damn it then, seems I'll have to unscrew the damn thing.

Knowing this, I'd imagine hooking up the IDE's were probably a pain. How do you have it configured?:hmm::hmm:

IDE-1
Master-main HDD
Slave-cd/rom

IDE-2
Master-slave HDD
Slave-dvd

Peto · 01-11-08, 01:26 PM

It's best to pull both cables from the drive.

TteFAboB · 01-12-08, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonar732

Knowing this, I'd imagine hooking up the IDE's were probably a pain. How do you have it configured?:hmm::hmm:

IDE-1
Master-main HDD
Slave-cd/rom

IDE-2
Master-slave HDD
Slave-dvd

Actually, the master is a SATA.

And there's an empty removable HDD tray at the top slot I didn't even mention: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/formTrays-c.html

So I think one IDE has the tray and the slave HDD, and the other has the DVD/Cds, if that works, I don't really know.

01-11-08, 11:56 AM	#1
TteFAboB Admiral Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 2,247 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	Hard-drive cabling question. Greetings, mighty geeks, I have a slave hard drive on a PC I don't want people fiddling with. I cannot remove it from the PC and store it yet as I am waiting for an external USB adapter thingie to arrive, and I really have no decent place to store it right now other than in the PC case itself. Unfortunately it's an IDE, and the IDE cable is impossibe to reach without removing the screws and pulling the HDD out. So to save me the trouble of unscrewing and screwing it back on, I had a brilliant idea: I can reach for the power cable easily, how about I just disconnect the power cable and leave the IDE cable attached? Can I do this? Will it destroy or damage the HDD or put data at risk? Will it glitch the booting of the PC? Perfect safety is only a few screws away, I know, but hey, it takes even less time to read your reply, unless you're Skybird. __________________ "Tout ce qui est exagéré est insignifiant." ("All that is exaggerated is insignificant.") - Talleyrand

01-11-08, 12:01 PM	#3
SUBMAN1 Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,866 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Depends how tight the HD power is in the hard drive. SOme are near impossible to get out with the cable out anyway. Some and easy and remove easy. If you're paranoid - do it the right way. -S PS. Oops - I see what you are trying to do. Remove the IDE cable too by the way, otherwise your system may wait forever trying to read from it. __________________

01-11-08, 12:19 PM	#4
geetrue Cold War Boomer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Walla Walla Posts: 2,837 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	I know you are doing this with a regular HDD ATA, but if you ever get a system that has SATA ... do not plug/unplug the SATA cable form the HDD or the motherboard with the power cord in ... All kinds of strange things happen to the power supply ... I was in a hurry and by passed that simple safety rule last year. __________________

01-11-08, 12:27 PM	#5
TteFAboB Admiral Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 2,247 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	The slave HDD is stuck between the top of the case and the CD/DVD drives. Since the drives are longer than the HDD, the little thing doesn't stick out like it should when you install it where it's supposed to be. Damn it then, seems I'll have to unscrew the damn thing. __________________ "Tout ce qui est exagéré est insignifiant." ("All that is exaggerated is insignificant.") - Talleyrand

01-11-08, 01:26 PM	#7
Peto Ace of the Deep Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The details of my life are quite inconsequential Posts: 1,049 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	It's best to pull both cables from the drive. __________________ If your target has a 30 degree AOB, the range from his base course line equals the current range divided by 2.