Systems and methods are provided for pre-charging the DC bus on a motor drive. Pre-charging techniques involve pre-charge circuitry including a manual switch, an automatic switch, and pre-charge control circuitry to switch the automatic switch between pre-charge and pre-charge bypass modes in response to an initialized pre-charge operation, input voltage sags, and so forth. In some embodiments, the pre-charge operation may be initialized by switching the manual switch closed. In some embodiments, the pre-charge operation may also be initialized by a detected voltage sag on the DC bus. The pre-charge circuitry may also be configured to disconnect to isolate a motor drive from the common DC bus under certain fault conditions.