What is the position of the heads when sata cable isnt in?

[jeffjeff]

If i connect the power and not the sata what do the heads do?
do they move at all?
only at the start?
do they stay parked until sata is in?

[dick]

As you have described does the motor spin up?
Depending on the drive make and model, the jumper position might determine if the drive will spin up with or without a signal from the motherboard.

[drc]

Typically the drive will still init normally but I have seen some Hitachi laptop drives that don't do anything until SATA is plugged.