Transferring to new HD

[Nawmu]

I'm trying to transfer things from my old dying HD to my new one, but when I start it up with it plugged in, it gets stuck (only waited for 10-15 minutes) at "Starting Windows" (with the logo pulsating,) and I read somewhere, pretty sure on Tom's Hardware, you can plug the power into the HD, turn on your PC and get on the desktop, then plug in the SATA cable, is that safe?

 

[Nuno Silva]

IF on your BIOS you have "Hotplug SATA" (or something similar) ON then it is safe.

 

[Nawmu]

Hm, can someone vouch for what was said above? would greatly appreciate it. Also, I don't think I saw anything called that or similar to that in BIOS, then again I didn't go looking around everywhere in it....

 

[Nuno Silva]

I am sorry but my previous answer was not correct, SATA has native hot swapping as you can read on wikipedia:

Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) (SATA) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA[2] replaces the older AT Attachment standard (ATA later referred to as Parallel ATA or PATA), offering several advantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signalling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol.

I have seen many BIOS with hot-plug function enable/disable so maybe you should take a look into your motherboard's manual anyway

 

[scout_03]

hdd maker have software to transfert data from a old drive to new one you only need another sata plug and the power from the psu .