Specific Hard Drive Detection Question

[jeff]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Question for the knowledgebable experts here.


If a hard drive's power plug is removed yet the IDE cable still connected
will it be seen by the bios?

I have in the past diabled hard drives in the bios (while power and ide
cables were still connected) but during a fresh install of windows those
drives were 'seen"..is that possible?


So my question is directly this:

Is a hard drive totally invisible to the bios and to windows if the 12v and
5v connectors are disabled while ide cable remains connected ?


Since I have so many hard drives I am thinking of several toggle switches to
individually turn on and off a hard drives power so that clones are made it
reduces problems.


TIA,

jeff

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

jeff <jeff@aol.com> wrote in message
news:Hc-dnTk4xOjMWA3fRVn-ig@velocitywest.net...

> If a hard drive's power plug is removed yet the IDE cable still connected will
> it be seen by the bios?

Nope. The bios sends an Identify command
to the drives to see what is out there, and if
the drive isnt powered, it cant respond to that.

> I have in the past diabled hard drives in the bios (while power and ide cables
> were still connected) but during a fresh install of windows those drives were
> 'seen"..is that possible?

Yes, Win does its own scan for drives,
it doesnt ask the bios for the list of drives.

> So my question is directly this:

> Is a hard drive totally invisible to the bios and to windows if the 12v and 5v
> connectors are disabled while ide cable remains connected ?

Yes. But that isnt an ideal approach, you can find some
configs dont work that well with the drive not powered.
You cant necessarily always see the powered drive properly.

> Since I have so many hard drives I am thinking of several toggle switches to
> individually turn on and off a hard drives power so that clones are made it
> reduces problems.

The other downside with that approach is that you
are flouting the ATA standard on the cabling side
as well. That isnt guaranteed to be reliable.

It is however the approach many removable drive
bays use and does work quite a bit of the time.