You have probably heard the term ” hot-swap ” at some time , especially when it comes to storage devices . And it is that all the devices that are connected can be either hot-swap, or cold-swap. We are going to explain what these two terms mean , why they are important, and of course, given the choice, which is the best option.
What does hot-swap and cold-swap mean
A hot-swap device is one that can be connected and disconnected without turning off the PC . Surely the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this is USB devices, and indeed they are the perfect example because we can connect and disconnect them as many times as we want without having to turn off the equipment in between. This includes not only USB sticks, but also keyboards, mice, etc.
On the contrary, cold-swap devices are those that we have to turn off the equipment in order to connect or disconnect them, such as graphics cards or RAM memory.
Why is it important to know if a device is hot-swap or cold-swap?
Of course, we could remove a RAM memory module from the PC without turning it off, but that would surely cause the computer to freeze , and that if we did not short-circuit while doing so, which would cause a much worse disaster. Likewise, something similar would happen if we remove the graphics card, if we disconnect the power supply, or if we disconnect the system disk.
For this reason, it is important to know which devices are hot-swap and which are cold-swapped. As a general rule, only USB devices are hot-swappable, with some exceptions in storage units, but in this case not because of it, but because of the bay in which it is installed and because of the configuration of the motherboard. In other words, if we removed a non-system hard drive, nothing would happen and the PC could continue to function, but with some conditions.
The exception: storage devices
Hard drives or SSDs are not hot-swap per se, since it depends on what information they contain inside, or more specifically on whether they contain files that the system uses. There are some PC cases that have external hot-swap bays that allow you to remove a hard drive without having to open the PC and unscrew anything, but this does not mean that the drives are configured for this purpose.
For a hard disk or any other internal storage device to work in this way, it must be configured in the BIOS of the motherboard, generally in the SATA configuration section, as “hot-swappable” or ESP (External SATA Port ).
In this way, we will know that the disk connected to the SATA port configured in the BIOS as removable, will be hot swap. In any case, we must make sure to use that disk as storage, and not to install programs or games since, otherwise, it would behave like cold-swap in the sense that if we removed it with the PC turned on, there would be things that would stop working. work and even file corruption or system crashes could occur .
This, by the way, today can only be configured on SATA or eSATA devices and with AHCI (IDE is not supported, and RAID mode is not). Likewise and once we have it activated in BIOS, we will have to return to Windows and within it we will have the typical icon next to the time in the shape of a pendrive.
By clicking on it, the name of our storage unit will appear, where if we click on it it will give us the option to disconnect, as long as it is not active for some clear reason. Remember that this drive cannot be the drive for the operating system for obvious reasons.
