I am trying to do a hard drive recovery, and want to know if I unplug and plug the hard drive back in, while the PC is on (running Windows 7). This is a secondary hard drive, not the primary one.
I know this is possible with eSATA, but I'm not sure it is with SATA, and don't want anything to go wrong.
So, the question is: can I connect a SATA hard drive to to my PC, while it is running?
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
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 the link below where there is a discussion about the Linux driver support, which includes hot-plugging not only drives, but also the SATA controller itself.
Note in particular the (quoted further below) list of controllers that specifically do NOT support hot-plugging as an example that this feature depends on the controller primarily.
Article (from the wayback machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20190921095037/www.linuxforums.org/forum/peripherals-hardware/77063-how-hot-pluggable-sata-drives.html
Controllers:
The following SATA controllers will never support hotplug: Intel ICH5-8 (non-AHCI), Pacific Digital Talon (ADMA), Promise SATA SX4.
Hope this helps.
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!! :)
