Reasons For Hot-swapping
Hot swapping is used whenever it is desirable to change the configuration or repair a working system without interrupting its operation. It may simply be for convenience, to avoid the delay and nuisance of shutting down and then restarting complex equipment, or because it is essential for equipment to be perpetually active (server).
Hot swapping may be used to add or remove peripherals or components, to allow a device to synchronize data with a computer, and to replace faulty modules without interrupting equipment operation.
Equipment may be designed with redundancy so that in the event of the failure of a component, other parts of the system carry out its functions while the faulty component is removed and a replacement connected. For example, computer RAID disk arrays allow a faulty disk to be hot-swapped for a new one; the new one is configured to become part of the array automatically or by user command. A machine may have dual power supplies, each adequate to power the machine; a faulty one may be hot-swapped.
Hot swapping can also be used as a means for circumventing security measures preventing the execution of unsigned code, a common example of this is hot swapping the Microsoft Xbox Console hard drive.
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