# Can I remove an IDE DVD Optical Drive while my PC is turned on?



## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

Just wondering, because I have many reasons I don't want to turn off my computer, but I really need to swap drives. Anybody know if this is possible?


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## ktr (May 10, 2007)

no


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## DaMulta (May 10, 2007)

yes

Not recommended but I have done it. 

I switch out PCI cards in the server at work all the time with never turning it off. My boss flipped out the first time he seen me do it LOL.

After you switch it out refresh device manager to get it to install Casheti.


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## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

Conflicting opinions here...who is right?


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## Zedicus (May 10, 2007)

yes you can just use hardware manager to remove it first. u can also add drives while hot if yur psu supports it.


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## GJSNeptune (May 10, 2007)

You just wanna make sure the drive isn't being read/written.


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## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

GJSNeptune said:


> You just wanna make sure the drive isn't being read/written.



Can anybody else confirm this also?


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## Zedicus (May 10, 2007)

if u remove it in device manager first it takes care of that. plus flushes buffers and everything.


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## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

Zedicus said:


> if u remove it in device manager first it takes care of that. plus flushes buffers and everything.



So once I've done all this and whip out the molex I won't get fried?


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## t_ski (May 10, 2007)

I've heard of guys frying fans and motherboards while trying to connect them while the power was on.  I don't know if this is truely safe, but I would be concerned about creating an arc while removing or attaching the drives' power.  Data cables should be OK, because i think the voltage/amperage is low enough.

What reasons would you have for not wanting to power down the system?


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## ktr (May 10, 2007)

you might be able to remove it, but how are you gonna enable the new drive? doesnt ide initiallizes in the bios?


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## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

I can't turn off cos I'm converting some stuff, and downloading, and I wanna burn some DVD's too...but this burner sucks fucking ass.

I thought it was better than my last one but every movie I've burnt from this one never works.

I guess I'll have to wait until it's all done.

Thanks for the mega fast responses.


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## Namslas90 (May 10, 2007)

Check this out;
http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm


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## Casheti (May 10, 2007)

That's only for SATA 

Nice find though..


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## ktr (May 10, 2007)

Namslas90 said:


> Check this out;
> http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm



thats for sata...


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## Zedicus (May 10, 2007)

you wont get fried. as stated refresh device manager to find new device.
i do it cuz im lazy and like having long up times
fans, pci cards. cd drives, hard drives. about the only thing u cant hot swap in a desktop is the ram and cpu. absolutly do not statik shock anything while its running though.

also some psu's dont like having devices plugged in while running and they will auto power down.


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## Steevo (May 10, 2007)

I have done it too.



The BIOS hands over control to Windows after the hardware boot is complete.


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## Deleted member 3 (May 10, 2007)

The hardware is never made to be hotpluggable, so it isn't exactly safe. I would highly recommend shutting down the system.


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## Athlon2K15 (May 10, 2007)

i thought sata drives were hotpluggable?


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## kingofhakers (May 10, 2007)

*lol*

you might be able to. of course, you may not be able to actually use it while you are taking it out. RSIK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK IF YOU TAKE IT OUT


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## Urlyin (May 10, 2007)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> The hardware is never made to be hotpluggable, so it isn't exactly safe. I would highly recommend shutting down the system.



I agree you're just asking for trouble... you won't find any manufacture posting in their manual .. sure go ahead just plug it in while the system is running ..


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## ktr (May 10, 2007)

AthlonX2 said:


> i thought sata drives were hotpluggable?



yes, they are...

including scsi, usb, & firewire...(and maybe more)


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## Zedicus (May 10, 2007)

actually most interfaces. ide and pci do hav hotpluggable built in to the standard. its not advertised cuz users are idiots though. scsi, and other server interfaces do advertise it as hopefully idiots arent working on yur servers.

the old isa was a big no no to try and hotplug.


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## Deleted member 3 (May 10, 2007)

ktr said:


> yes, they are...
> 
> including scsi, usb, & firewire...(and maybe more)



Not all SCSI devices are hotpluggable, 68p connectors for example aren't made to be hotplugged even though it can be done. It's why they made SCA. It's not really an issue if the software side can handle it or that the hardware supports it, the connectors simply aren't made for it. And converting doesn't take too long, it's worth waiting for it to finish just to be on the safe side.


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## Steevo (May 10, 2007)

Chicken.


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## aximbigfan (May 10, 2007)

AthlonX2 said:


> i thought sata drives were hotpluggable?



most of them are.


chris


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## Zedicus (May 10, 2007)

its in sata's core whitepeper to support hotplug. so if a sata drive does not support hotplug it is a non standard drive.


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## overcast (May 10, 2007)

You will arc the power doing that with the standard 3pin power cables. SATA power connectors are specifically designed to eliminate that.


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## 3991vhtes (Aug 1, 2007)

hmm...this thread is old indeed. But, I'll post my story . I tried to hotswap a harddrive. it was an EIDE, and used the molex connector. I plugged it in and got shocked, and the pc turned off. i reset everything, and tried to power the system back on and BOOM! the power supply made a pop sound, and smoke was eminating from the vents of the PSU. I don't know if you did it yet, but don't...if you did it, you are truley something else. NO ONE should ever unplug/plug in ANYTHING when the PC is on. Sure, some people have gotten lucky hotswapping stuff, BUT, what if you do it and the PSU or something gets fried/shorted out/starts smoking? wow, this was the longest post I probably ever did


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## Casheti (Aug 1, 2007)

Well I never did do it


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## 3991vhtes (Aug 1, 2007)

Smart choice


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## DaMulta (Aug 1, 2007)

3991vhtes said:


> hmm...this thread is old indeed. But, I'll post my story . I tried to hotswap a harddrive. it was an EIDE, and used the molex connector. I plugged it in and got shocked, and the pc turned off. i reset everything, and tried to power the system back on and BOOM! the power supply made a pop sound, and smoke was eminating from the vents of the PSU. I don't know if you did it yet, but don't...if you did it, you are truley something else. NO ONE should ever unplug/plug in ANYTHING when the PC is on. Sure, some people have gotten lucky hotswapping stuff, BUT, what if you do it and the PSU or something gets fried/shorted out/starts smoking? wow, this was the longest post I probably ever did



You have to be fast like a ninja...sorry about that happening to you/Yea if the pins don't line up when your plugging something in that can happen.


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## 3991vhtes (Aug 1, 2007)

I surely wasn't working fast....and I remember the PSU's female connector, the pins were kinda crooked, it was stupid of me to try it when knowing they were crooked...:shadedshu myself


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## kingofhakers (Oct 26, 2007)

cant you blind yourself if the drive is on? and youd think that it would shock you if it was actually running...


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## Casheti (Oct 26, 2007)

Talk about gravedigging.

OMG I CAN POST AGAIN. IT'S A MIRACLE!


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## Ben Clarke (Oct 26, 2007)

YAY! Welcome back Casheti. I thought you banned till next year?


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## Casheti (Oct 26, 2007)

So did I.. dunno what happened.


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## Fuse-Wire (Oct 26, 2007)

you were saved!!


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## Casheti (Oct 26, 2007)

Yea!! w00t!


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## curt (Oct 26, 2007)

*curt*

i have pulled many parts well allmost all cus im dumb brave an like to try things

i have pulled 

video
ram
pci cards 
hd.s wile being read 
psu strate from the board wile on 

never fryed any thing most pci cards ar hot swapable [agp no lmao] pci-x not shure yeat

cdroms an stuff genraly freez or chug out the system [when removed ide] sata is like usb

weardist thing i ever has was a sdram ssystem with a 128mb stick an a 64mb stick so i pulled the 64mb stick wile it was running an it was like it dident evin notis lol widows kept running

ov corese this dosent work now as most systems ar dule chaneel an it breaks the mix

worst if had is i shorted the psu a few times [gota wate for the breaker in the psu]

an i remember a few times where i had the psu on an the system off an i went to put in a card an as i was it came on so i pulled the power cord till i got it in

im with the others thow its better/safer to just turn it off an take it out


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## tony929292 (Oct 26, 2007)

i did it and when i plug the new one in to the psu the plug was upside down the system cut off (so i might as well had turned it off) and the drive wasnt useable agian


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## syker (Aug 31, 2008)

of course, you could always get fried. almost every component in/connected to the computer could shock you if you do something stupid with it. actually going into the computer could kill you if you touch the wrong thing. i would check Computer Hazards with an official computer website before doing something like that.


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## iamajunky (Aug 31, 2008)

i wouldn't do it matter of fact don't do it you could burn up your optical drive when you hook that molex power up, highly not reccomended, now if it was sata it wouldn't matter, gotta love that hot swap


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## Polaris573 (Aug 31, 2008)

syker said:


> of course, you could always get fried. almost every component in/connected to the computer could shock you if you do something stupid with it. actually going into the computer could kill you if you touch the wrong thing. i would check Computer Hazards with an official computer website before doing something like that.



Look at the post date.  You responded to a thread that is almost a year old.


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## iamajunky (Aug 31, 2008)

haha i didn't even see the date lame oh well


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## oli_ramsay (Aug 31, 2008)

Polaris573 said:


> Look at the post date.  You responded to a thread that is almost a year old.



LOL, you're living in the past Syker!


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## C L a z z a C T (Sep 1, 2008)

*Check Again!!!!!*



Casheti said:


> That's only for SATA
> 
> Nice find though..



http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm
Read the fine print!!!!
quoted from the site for the program.....

By default, only Fixed disk drives are listed in the popup menu but you can configure Removable disk drives and DVD/CD-ROM drives to be included. The drives removable from the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon also can be configured. The non-hot swap drives also can be configured but listed in gray.


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## Chryonn (Sep 1, 2008)

anyone else notice user "syker" has thanked everyone in the first page and half of the second page? really odd


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## Wshlist (Sep 3, 2008)

IDE is particularly sensitive, and not hot-swappable, do NOT unplug a IDE from a powered up computer, although what will fry is most likely the IDE chip so you could be left with a half-way working system, how likely it is that things go wrong depend on luck but also on how much protection the manufacturer puts in the interface, some put in some safeguards, other none at all.

(SATA however is hot-swappable, but if it's a HDD you must either disable caching or purge the cache before removal or the filesystem can get damaged, sysinternals.com, now a microsoft site has a utility called 'sync' to purge btw.)


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## Hayder_Master (Sep 3, 2008)

im try it with floppy disk drive , yes you can


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