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Duke Nukem

Member

Registered: 2018-11-07

Posts: 48  

Running with disconnected SATA cables

Would any harm be done to SATA hard drives or their contents if run with their power cables connected but with the SATA data cables disconnected?  The question applies to both SSD and spinning rust drives.

This is because I want to install Windows on one of my four drives and I don't want it to FUBAR my Devuan installation and data on the other three (one SSD and two spinning rust), which is what installing Windows does if it gets the chance. The Windows installation will think there is only one HDD and that it owns the machine, but afterwards I will reconnect the other drives and update grub.

Of course I could disconnect the power cables too, but despite its huge size my tower case is very cramped inside and it is a pain to reach the power connectors, while the data connectors are easier. All disconnections and re-connections would be while the system is shut down of course.

Last edited by Duke Nukem (Yesterday 23:35:30)

HardSun

Member

Registered: 2025-07-29

Posts: 36  

Re: Running with disconnected SATA cables

I run a two ssd setup on my pc and have to use windows for work.
When i installed windows i just made sure windows used the correct drive.
The only caveat I think will be the boot sectors and where windows decided to put the uefi.
So in my case i had to fiddle around making a separate partition for windows uefi.
This was so both hard disks have there own uefi partition.
So it may be a good idea to poweroff the devuan drive so windows uses the drive you want exclusively.

To make a long story short, i think in my setup the sda drive is the primary drive windows likes to put uefi, so if i install windows on say sdb or nvme0n1 it will always choose sda to install the uefi software provided that an OS like devuan previously installed a uefi partition there.

This is all dependent on "NOT" having secure boot enabled mind you. I dont trust that setup.

EDIT to add: I dont use grub to enter the windows drive, i just use my bios boot menu for that by pressing F10 as the machine starts up.
You could also have a grub menu option on devuan for choosing the windows installation after you set everything up.

Last edited by HardSun (Today 00:00:19)

RedGreen925

Member

Registered: 2024-12-07

Posts: 214  

Re: Running with disconnected SATA cables

Would any harm be done to SATA hard drives or their contents if run with their power cables connected but with the SATA data cables disconnected?  The question applies to both SSD and spinning rust drives.

This is because I want to install Windows

No harm at all it is the only I will ever install windows on a machine I use. Not that I do it often but when done I never give it the chance of messing up anything in the machine to be installed onto.

steve_v

Member

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 553  

Re: Running with disconnected SATA cables

Would any harm be done to SATA hard drives or their contents if run with their power cables connected but with the SATA data cables disconnected?

No.
That said, a) You needn't worry about data loss because anyone with a shred of sense has backups, and b) It's far easier to simply disable the port in BIOS.

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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.