Stupid Computer Question - need help

[blueocto]

Without going into the whole ins and outs.... would it be unsafe to plug in the power supply to an internal hard drive, whilst the computer is turned on and running.

The issue is with booting up, and thought if I could get to where I want to be, and then just plug it in, hopefully the software will realise it is there and I can format it.

[LeadMagnet]

As a rule, no, i wouldn't. Unless you're using linux :D
I think it's also up to your power supply how well it would handle the change, so i still wouldn't risk it, even though i know it's possible if you're running linux.
Your safest option is to get an external usb HDD case.

[blueocto]

Hmm well I've maanged to get half way there, just gutted I've lost so many hours with this damned computer! GRR

[Arkady]

If the drive isn't powered up when you boot your computer then your bios wont recognise it which means that the operating system won't even be aware of it's existence. I'm not very clear exactly what your trying to achieve, but if you just want to format the drive before something on it can misbehave in some way, then I suggest that you boot up from an emergency disk and then run fdisk. (Assuming a PC)

[blueocto]

Aye nothing like that was working Arkady, hence the desperation lol

I've managed to gain access to my main drive now, so I'll have a bash at trying to recover the second hdd.

Thanks for your replies guys!