Question How bad is it to power HDD without a data connection?

[blitzx5]

Hi,
I've read a post on here saying that it could be harmful overtime to power a hard drive while the sata cable is unplugged and it's not in use. I'm just curious/paranoid how much I realistically screwed things up by running my system like this daily for about 3 weeks. My SSD is my boot drive and the one that's powered with sata cable unplugged will soon be secondary/storage. I'm just hoping I haven't drastically decreased the lifespan or increased the chance of failure. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Impact to HDD should not be any different than when running with data cable connected.

BTW - why did you need to disconnect data cable?

 

[blitzx5]

Impact to HDD should not be any different than when running with data cable connected.

BTW - why did you need to disconnect data cable?

I didn't have a second sata cable long enough to have both drives plugged in. So I opted for the boot drive. HDD/secondary drive was my old boot drive before upgrading, I just used that sata cable for the SSD/boot drive. The space is tight behind the drives. It's a single long power cable with multiple connectors, and it was easier to get the boot drive power connector in if both were plugged in.