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Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard
W7x64 Pro -up to date

MBoard Pdf seems to not have the word "hot swap" in it.

I do have 4 swappable drive bays but always been afraid to try it.
EDIT...The Kingwin bays say they support "hot swap"

Get a "remove drive" option only on a HD I removed from an
external USB case that I use for back up. So seems to be some
internal drive flag.

I've read that I can go to "disk management" and tell the drive
to go "offline" and then pull the drive safely.
Then insert a new one and tell it to rescan the system and find the new drive.

Thoughts welcome!.... hate to lose a 3TB drive.
jmc2

Two things: Make sure you are using AHCI, secondly you can use this: http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/05/enable-sata-hot-swap/

Your BIOS may also have an additional option to enable eSATA / hot swap for each port. Some BIOSes (e.g. Asus) label this option as "SATA ESP".

I looked in the bios and all my satas are set to "hot swap".

Looking at the above linked web page....

"The device specifications should state if the device is hot swap capable."
Looks to be a sticking point. Nothing on the hard drive mentions "hot swap".

I think I going to try both "device manager -UNINSTALL" and "disk managment - OFFLINE"
and see if I can tell that the hard drive spins down. With no power it has be safe. (I hope)

Ick, just realized that "not spinning" may not mean no power to the drive.

Thanks much to all!

jmc2

Pretty much any SATA HDD or SSD (even early SATA HDDs) should support hot swap. Support in early SATA *controllers* was sometimes an issue, but that has been a solved problem for years now.

Good to hear!

Now to find out the hard way.

thanks,
jmc

You shouldn't have any issues. As long as you aren't suddenly killing power while seeking/writing it usually isn't going to hurt the drive anyway.

DancinJack wrote:

You shouldn't have any issues. As long as you aren't suddenly killing power while seeking/writing it usually isn't going to hurt the drive anyway.

Heh, that is my "hope!"... that windows will "uninstall" or "offline" a drive in a data safe manner.
Also the thought of plugging an edge connecter into a slot that may or may not be hot is....
stressful!

Like updating a bios, 22 bios updates behind. From Nov 11-11 to July-28-14.
32 months and 22 bios updates. Average 1.4 months per bios update...
I am not doing that!
If I ever see the bios seem to stabilize for a while or I move to a
newer operating system I will. (cringe)

Thanks,
jmc2

jmc2 wrote:

Heh, that is my "hope!"... that windows will "uninstall" or "offline" a drive in a data safe manner.

You do need to be able to issue the "safely remove" command though. Or otherwise safely dismount/quiesce the filesystem on the drive about to be unplugged.

jmc2 wrote:

Also the thought of plugging an edge connecter into a slot that may or may not be hot is....
stressful!

This, at least, is a no-brainer. The lengths of the contacts on SATA connectors are staggered such that the connections are made and broken in a "safe" sequence when the drive is inserted or removed. In a nutshell, ground is always connected first and disconnected last; power rails and data connections are only made/broken when ground is present. This protects the electronics from damage. As long as you've got a decent PSU which is up to the task of handling the power glitches caused by the "hot" connect/disconnect events everything's good.

just brew it! wrote:

You do need to be able to issue the "safely remove" command though. Or otherwise safely dismount/quiesce the filesystem on the drive about to be unplugged.

Hmm, To get the "safely remove" option I will HAVE to install the "Hot Swap" program.(?)

just brew it! wrote:

otherwise safely dismount/quiesce the filesystem on the drive

Was hoping that "device manager -UNINSTALL" or "disk managment - OFFLINE"
would be doing this?
If not then looks like the "Hot Swap" program is the only way to go.

Thanks,
jmc2

jmc2 wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

You do need to be able to issue the "safely remove" command though. Or otherwise safely dismount/quiesce the filesystem on the drive about to be unplugged.

Hmm, To get the "safely remove" option I will HAVE to install the "Hot Swap" program.(?)

just brew it! wrote:

otherwise safely dismount/quiesce the filesystem on the drive

Was hoping that "device manager -UNINSTALL" or "disk managment - OFFLINE"
would be doing this?
If not then looks like the "Hot Swap" program is the only way to go.

Thanks,
jmc2

Taking it offline in disk management should do it.

just brew it! wrote:

Taking it offline in disk management should do it.

Think I got it now.

Thanks!
jmc2