Question What happens if the power to a sata drive is interrupted?

[tom2u]

Is it possible to switch off the power to a 7200 rpm SATA hard drive and then remove it from the system and not have any problems? Apparently the drive has to lock itself after spinning down to prevent damage from movement. Would it do this if its power was interrupted? (I don't know the best way to disconnect the power.)

 

[kanewolf]

Is it possible to switch off the power to a 7200 rpm SATA hard drive and then remove it from the system and not have any problems? Apparently the drive has to lock itself after spinning down to prevent damage from movement. Would it do this if its power was interrupted? (I don't know the best way to disconnect the power.)

It depends on what the drive is doing. Worst case, the drive is updating a critical file. That file is then corrupted because the write didn't complete. Your PC no longer boots.

 

[tom2u]

Its not a boot drive.
It wouldn't be doing anything when I disconnect it.
So then could this work?

 

[kanewolf]

Its not a boot drive.
It wouldn't be doing anything when I disconnect it.
So then could this work?

Unless you unmount (eject) it, then it could be doing something.
I would not recommend randomly pulling the power from an operating drive that is not designed to be hot-swappable.

 

[tom2u]

Unless you unmount (eject) it, then it could be doing something.
I would not recommend randomly pulling the power from an operating drive that is not designed to be hot-swappable.

Yeah, I see your point. But if its not an external drive can I unmount or eject it? When I right click it I see no Eject option I see with removable drives.
Could it damage the drive if the power is shut down and what about the parking of the platters. Will they park if the power is shut off? There's physical damage to the drive and data loss, 2 things to consider apparently.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Hot plugging a drive not in a system specifically designed for such is an invitation to, at a minimum, loss of data, and at worse, loss of an entire system. If you want to remove the drive then do it properly by shutting down the system first.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Hot plugging a drive not in a system specifically designed for such is an invitation to, at a minimum, loss of data, and at worse, loss of an entire system. If you want to remove the drive then do it properly by shutting down the system first.

I totally agree with this. Do not pull the power and pull it out unless you want problems

 

[tom2u]

Well I've had power interrupted to hard drives many times and never had any problems. Maybe I've been lucky. But its probably happened at least 20 times. Never any data loss. The thing is if power is returned I don't think Windows would recognize it without a restart.