Unplug HDD from working system

ftball

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Feb 15, 2013
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Hello,

I wanted to find out what would happen if I took out a HDD from a working computer. Would it still keep working, because it has most of the information in RAM? Or it would work for quite some time, but then stop? Or something like BSOD would happen? Lets assume that when taking the disk out, I would first spin it down, and when it is not spinning, I would quickly unplug it. Therefore, I think, as it is not spinning and heads are parked, it wouldn't be damaged. Am I right?
 

ftball

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Feb 15, 2013
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Just curious whether OS would crash or not.
 

ftball

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Feb 15, 2013
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Why would there be BSOD? Sometimes the disk is not used for a minute and system is running fine. I know that it's not used for at least a minute because Windows spin it down. So, if it can last a minute without accessing the disk, why couldn't it last more? Or is it because of some fancy Windows service? Maybe Linux would behave differently?
 
Well you can always go ahead and try it for yourself to get the answer to your own question, but again I stress the dangers of poking around pulling cables inside the case when it's running.
 


If you unplug a system disk while the computer is on, it will crash immediately. Try it.
 

ftball

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Feb 15, 2013
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Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you were wrong. I took out the one and only hard disk from a working computer and I was still able to use some functions. By using software like RAMDisk I would be able to have a fully functioning computer without hard disk. After I tried to access the disk, Windows did not BSOD. They only showed a spinning mouse cursor, i.e. loading. Also, I took out the disk after keeping the computer running for 1 minute, so I guess it was not even fully loaded, because I started Chrome before taking the disk out, but couldn't access it afterwards.
 

ftball

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Feb 15, 2013
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No, I did not. By the way, when I reconnected the drive, screen went pitch black. It was either caused by the disk being reconnected or it happened before and I noticed only after. And for file corruption, I am completely sure there is some, but I couldn't guarantee it came from the experiment. The computer I used was badly hurt - thrown twice to the ground and I changed the hard drive and screen myself, installed windows before completely reassembling the hardware, also there were many forced shutdowns and the disk itself is more than 4 years old.