Do I have to shut down to attach my new hard drive?

[Shagbag]

Do I need to power my PC down to attach a secondary hard drive, or can I simply attach it and then mount it?

[dracheflieger]

Always shut down unless you'are using some hot-swappable components

[unix_Hussi]

Always shut down unless you'are using some hot-swappable components
More like restart,The summary of PC-BSD states that all devices will be availible at systems startup.

[dracheflieger]

:lol: If he can physically attach that hard drive on a restart and have the BIOS find it he's faster than I am. ;-) I took it to mean that he wanted to physically connect another piece of hardware to his system that wasn't hot-swappable.