Dell 8600, DVD/2d HD hot-pluggable?

["A. F. Cano" <afc@shibaya.lonestar.org>]

Hi,

I've looked around but didn't find the answer.  Way back when I first
installed woody on this laptop, removing the DVD drive locked it up.

First, from the hardware perspective, would I cause damage by taking
the DVD, 2d HD or floppy drive in/out of the ultrabay?  Since the above
experience I haven't dared, but it would be nice to switch drives
without having to shut down, as I'm always running lots of stuff.

If no hardware damage, can someone tell me if kernel 2.6.18 can handle
the insertion/removals? (after unmounting the file systems of course).

Thanks.

A.