Question Safely unmounting a broken secondary HDD from a HP Envy 360x

[Nenagh]

Simply put, my laptop has been making clicking sounds for the last month or so. There are two drives on this laptop; the SSD, where the OS and all my data is, and the HDD, which has nothing of any value on it. I suspected it was the HDD that was causing the clicking but didn't do anything about it because it wasn't causing any performance issues and I'm lazy...

It recently caused my laptop to shut-down unexpectedly so I need to fix the issue now. So, can I unmount and remove the HDD from he laptop and have the laptop operate, just sans HDD, or will Windows throw a hissy-fit about the security being compromised?

 

[AllanGH]

What will you lose by trying it to see what happens?

Seems to me that would be the quickest way to approach getting an answer to the question...

 

[USAFRet]

Simply put, my laptop has been making clicking sounds for the last month or so. There are two drives on this laptop; the SSD, where the OS and all my data is, and the HDD, which has nothing of any value on it. I suspected it was the HDD that was causing the clicking but didn't do anything about it because it wasn't causing any performance issues and I'm lazy...

It recently caused my laptop to shut-down unexpectedly so I need to fix the issue now. So, can I unmount and remove the HDD from he laptop and have the laptop operate, just sans HDD, or will Windows throw a hissy-fit about the security being compromised?

Power OFF
Take the drive out
Power UP

What happens?