3 ms·

For such maintenance operations, you could support a mode where a barebones OS is copied into RAM. Then you can remove any SSD you want.

• Someone 6y ago
  Do SSDs support hot plugging? Can you unplug them from a Mac Pro without removing power from the system? Even if they do, I wouldn’t expect anybody to test that enough to make it absolutely reliable.
  • dahfizz 6y ago
    I don't know about the Mac hardware specifically, but SSDs can be hotplugged in linux boxes. If your sata controller doesn't support hotplugging, you will have to reboot for the block device to be accessible but that does not seem like an insurmountable problem in this case. Hotplugging is also a pretty basic feature for such an expensive computer.
    • enragedcacti 6y ago
      The SSDs in this case are M.2 NVME which is a PCIe-based standard. I have no clue if the M.2 or NVME standards address hotplugging but PCIe based hotplug is almost never a thing on consumer hardware iirc.
      • kalleboo 6y ago
        Isn't Thunderbolt basically hotplug PCIe? I wonder if hotplug M.2 NVMe requires any kind of special hardware or if it's pure software.
        • Laforet 6y ago
          At minimum you need to have a special connector like USB in which data lines are disconnected before the power lines. Or a dedicaed pair of cables to detect the link state. Both will of course require additional support at both software and hardware level. The DVI interface supported hot plugging in theory but I've seen many cases of monitors not working without a full restart.