can i connect sata hard drive to sata, while pc is on

Question

can i connect sata hard drive to a sata cable, while the pc is on?

im trying to do hard drive recovery and wanted to know if i can unplug and plug it back in the hard drive, while pc is in windows. btw this hard drive is secondary and not primary.

i know we can do this with esata, but not sure if we can do this with sata, dont want anything to go wrong, so asking first.

Answer 1

If your computer supports AHCI, and the SillionImage SATA controller supports it, then yes. There are various hot swap utility out there, like 'HotSwap!', so use what ever that suits your need.

For the moment, the number of manifactures that provide AHCI support is limited. Check your SATA controller.

Some reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

http://www.google.com/images?num=50&hl=en&safe=off&q=sata%20esata%20bracket&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Answer 2

While the SATA connectors are designed for hotplugging, and apparently SATA devices all support it, not all of the SATA controllers are. I would exercise caution. See for example here:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/peripherals-hardware/77063-how-hot-pluggable-sata-drives.html

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

open your run box, then type regedit and press enter. goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/services/ then find 'msahci' click on it and on the right side , right click on 'start' , click modify and change the value data to '0'. Restart your computer (important)! now you can 'safely remove' your SATA Internal Hard drive like you do so with External Hard drive!! :)