Connect SATA power cable to SATA Hardrive burn

[muplayer2000]

So i found an old sata hardrive that was stored for about 2 years.
While the computer was on, i tried to plugged the Hardrive in the SATA power connector cable, as soon as i plugged it in the power connector there was smoke coming from the connection and my computer immediately shutdown.:sarc:

Can someone explain what happened? I though you could connect devices while the computer was on without any issues?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not an internal drive,
Possibly in an usb/ esata external enclosure but even those have power switches.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My guess is something was wrong with the HDD.

 

[Layback Bear]

Never, I say never plug anything into power when the computer is powered up.

Exceptions would be hotswap bays and or USB ports. They can be plugged in or out when the system is powered.

Plugging anything into sata power with the computer powered up is for sure a NO NO.

Note.
The smoke could be from the arching of current (amps) or a bad hard drive.
This could of cause damage to your power supply also.
Their could be other components damaged also. What else is damaged is the luck of the draw.

I have had the smoke tests take out a complete computer and another time just the power supply. One never knows.

 

[muplayer2000]

Agreed,

Wish computer components were bulletproof.

 

[Digerati]

Actually, the SATA standard does dictate that SATA devices be hot-swappable though the "hotplug". But this requires perfect alignment of the connectors to avoid shorting out any pins. This is why it is best to only hot-swap using drive bays that you slide the drive through to aligned the connectors first, rather than simply by hand.

Without the support for hot swapping, server admin would have to shut down systems to swap out drives in a RAID array - and for a mission critical system, that would defeat one of the primary purposes for having a RAID setup in the first place.

Principles for using Hot Swap with SAS/SATA systems

 

[muplayer2000]

These Seagate hard-drive always seem to be the one affected..

 

[Digerati]

Not sure your point now. If you saw smoke, the damage likely was already done.