>>> If you want to verify, drag out a separate power supply and plug the
>>> disk in question into it, so it's completely off the machine's main
>>> power supply.  (Yes, this is generally safe to do; electrically,
>>> it's basically the same as putting the disk in an external
>>> enclosure.)
>
>> Except that external connectors typically include fuses somewhere.
>
>They do?  I don't know Macs, but I just now looked at the one example
>that is at ready hand (an Adaptec PCI SCSI card) and I see nothing
>user-replaceable.  There may be fuses, but if they're not
>user-replaceable I see no functional difference; they blow, it's dead.
>Even the machines on which I've seen fuses have never, in my
>experience, fused any SCSI line (they've all been SCSI machines) except
>for the terminator power pin.
>
>> This is *not* "safe," but it's okay for a brief lab test.
>
>I suppose it depends on what you consider "safe" to mean.

I had not thought of this.  Those Canadians are clever, ...... eh?

The big difference here is that it's ATA and not SCSI.  SCSI is
built for external use, and ATA, in general, is not.  There may be
some odd issues with grounding differences and other analog
voodoo.

I'll give it a try, tho.  I have extra PS's lying around.
I'm feeling brave today.

-dgl-