I want to know what exactly will happen if i disconnect my only apapi (parallel ATA) hard drive from the computer while the computer is running. I am running windows XP. ]
Can it damage my hard disk?
Can it damage the secotr 0?
Can it erase the whole data on my disk?
Will just the comp. will hang?
Or just the monitor stops showing anything...
Plz answer if u know even a little bit about it.
I am going to do it in next 2 hrs.
2006-11-18 16:58:16 · 11 answers · asked by rnd 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Likely hood is that you'll do a fair bit of damage.
A) You'll crash your computer. There is now no data to access from Windows.
B) You will most likely hurt your harddrive. you could short circuit it, wipe data, or break mechanisms within the actual drive.
and most importantly.. You'll most likely hurt yourself. it will cost you money to get this fixed, and you could ELECTROCUTE yourself!
by the way,
WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?
You could stop all of these issues by just turning your computer OFF!
Please don't do this...
Hope this helps,
mitch
2006-11-18 17:04:17 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pull the cable first, then pull power. If it isn't in the middle of writing anything, nothing will get corrupted on your drive - just don't bang it around while it is spinning down. XP will try to write the disk every few minutes, if not more often, and when it does you will get a disk IO error message. XP should stay running, but might hang or get a blue screen. If you plug a different drive back in, or plug the drive you pulled into another system that is running, you will hose up the operating system pretty good.
Just so you know, if it has a big flat cable going to the drive it is ATA not ATAPI, ATAPI is the interface for CD ROMs.
2006-11-18 17:05:38 · answer #2 · answered by James B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You will lose data/damage disk sectors if the computer is in the middle of writing out to the disk. Otherwise, chances are the drive will not be damaged. You computer will report errors and probably hang if the OS needs to fetch something from the drive. Why would the monitor stop displaying?
By the way, this is NOT a good thing to do at all. You could inadvertently damage the drive or motherboard. I would NEVER do something like this. I don't see what the point would be in doing it.
2006-11-18 17:03:13 · answer #3 · answered by Jack 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't agree with James B's answer. Actually what would happen is that you'll hang your OS. You want to know how I know this? It's because I tried it! (stupidly anyway) I did it with my WinXP machine and I tried to pull out the hard drive (now I don't remember why in hell's name I would), it's just a slave drive, and nothing was being read or written on that drive, and when i pulled the cord... It all seemed all right, and when i moved the mouse and hit the keyboard nothing happens. PC HANG!
Though for data loss, I can't really say since it's totally dependent on what you're doing. Destroying the hard drive or wiping the contents I think is quite impossible, unless a static charge passes through the thing or you did something else to the drive.
2006-11-18 17:26:52 · answer #4 · answered by just_another_critique 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmmmmmm
PC Russian roulette.
sounds fun.
lets all try this and report back what happens.
OK you first.
actually i tried this with a CD drive once because it was stuck in an endless cycle, i pulled the power to it first, and my PC hung instantly, the mouse and keyboard just stopped responding.
but my guess is if you disconnect the hard drive you got high odds of screwing it up, but you may get away with it with minimal damage.
also if you pull the power to the drive first in my guess you run less risk of acually damaging electronic components insted of just the data on the disk.
happy destruction
TV
2006-11-18 18:20:19 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you disconnect hard drive data cable, then there will no damage for the hard disk. But It may affect your IDE Controller. Becaue the data flow from the cable should reach the harddisk otherwise damage may happen to your Mother Board
2006-11-18 17:05:32 · answer #6 · answered by Karthick N 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok why would you want to do that? You could possibly get a shock, and the computer would make an insane beep. Only work on it when absolutley no power is coming in. Everything on the screen would go blank, to an error message with weird charectars, you could possibly mess upp some information.
2006-11-18 17:05:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am a computer tech in training and I have been told just don't try it. It can do any of what you have mentioned or worse. I have been told if you have to unplug anything make sure that it is hot-pluggable or you have the computer off. I am 100% positive that the hard drive isn't hot-pluggable. In my eyes, I just wouldn't do it.
2006-11-18 17:19:35 · answer #8 · answered by Joseph R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whatever you do dont take James Bs advice! maybe you should get webtv so theres less trinkets to temp you into trying stupid things
2006-11-19 11:46:40 · answer #9 · answered by gadgetgeek5 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I never was crazy to do that nor have I heared any one done it but my guess is all of the above.
2006-11-18 17:09:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋