re-installing a laptop IDE harddrive

[Jamie851]

Alright, heres the deal.. I have a Gateway laptop that I had to send in for repairs because the back light had burned out on the monitor. The email tech told me to take out my harddrive because I didn't want them to reformat my drive (I don't have my files backed up, I know thats my first mistake).

Now I've been told two contradicting statements regarding my IDE harddrive, by two people who are pretty good at computers, at least more capable than I am.

One says that there isn't a way to plug in my drive without it re-initializing itself, and when it does that it'll delete all my files. That the chip within my harddrive is designed to re initialize when its disconnected then re connected.

The other says that it won't be a problem, that the harddrive would only need to reformat if I have to reinstall my OS (which is Windows XP home edition). That just so long as Gateway returns my original laptop, without touching the CPU, then I should be able to pop in my harddrive and have it boot up no problem. Because he switches between two harddrives on his laptop all the time, no problem.

Now, I know that if you have a hot swappable drive you don't run into problems, but SATA is the only hot swappable drive correct? You cannot have an IDE drive that is hot swappable?

Any insight or suggestions is extremely helpful

 

[jeremy]

One says that there isn't a way to plug in my drive without it re-initializing itself, and when it does that it'll delete all my files. That the chip within my harddrive is designed to re initialize when its disconnected then re connected.

thats ridicules, ive never heard of any hard drive that self erase itself after being reconnected

SATA is the only hot swappable drive correct?

IDE can be hot swappable too (if you put it in an external enclosure)

 

[MrCoffee]

Hot swappable means you can disconnect and reconnect the drive *whilst* the power is on.
I strongly suggest you remove power cables and batteries before you remove the HDD.
Hot swappable or not should have nothing to do with your situation.


I have never heard of a HDD that resets itself when disconnected and I really dont see that that can be the case, however it wouldn't hurt to back up if you can.

 

[Jamie851]

The harddrive is already disconnected, and yes I removed all power sources (adapter and battery) and all other external connections before taking it out.. the removal was fine.

Now, what I need to know is what is going to happen when I put the harddrive back into the computer and boot it up.. well it be normal, I'm not going to lose my files?

 

[jeremy]

as i alredy said , never heard of such hd that erases itself on reconnect , you wont lose anything