Hot Swap with a HDD that has Windows on it?

[TyAaron]

So, I recently built a new computer and it happens to have a hot swap bay at the top (It's the Corsair 650D). I would love to throw in a few old hard drives that have some files on them but these drives have Windows installed, as they were from older computers. Will the hot swap still recognize them? And can I explore the files on them?

 

[rocknrollz]

Sure. When you insert the HD into the bay, it doesn't make it the boot drive. You can view all the files on it.

 

[TyAaron]

Must I restart my PC for it to show up? I've look in computer and in the disk management after inserting the drive. It doesn't appear.

 

[dudewitbow]

you shouldn't install internal hardware when the computer was on 😵

 

[rocknrollz]

As said above, insert it when the computer is off. Turn on computer and the HD should be seen.

 

[TyAaron]

It's not ruddy internal hardware 😛 It's got a hot swap bay at the top. External bay. That you can swap HDD's out.

 

[pcfan1]

It's not ruddy internal hardware 😛 It's got a hot swap bay at the top. External bay. That you can swap HDD's out.

theres still sata connector and power connector to plug in you're HDD even with the swap bay, the swap bay is just there to make to adding of new hard drives easier, most of them are "tool-less" setups but it is still recommended to turn off your computer whenever you add/remove components inside the case itself