lalalawawawa Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Okay, so guys (and girls :p) I bought a WD My Passport Essentials SE external HDD, and I was wondering what is the proper way to eject it? I just right click on it in My Computer, click Eject, and then remove the USB cable? Right? Asking because even after click Eject, and the drive removes itself from My Computer, it is actually still spinning. Is this a normal thing for external drives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted April 1, 2011 Subscriber² Share Posted April 1, 2011 Portable external hard drives will constantly spin, they don't spin down like the mains powered ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhav Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Okay, so guys (and girls :p) I bought a WD My Passport Essentials SE external HDD, and I was wondering what is the proper way to eject it? I just right click on it in My Computer, click Eject, and then remove the USB cable? Right? Asking because even after click Eject, and the drive removes itself from My Computer, it is actually still spinning. Is this a normal thing for external drives? I have the same experience. Usually I just leave the drive plugged in for an extra 30mins, so it's not being used, and then just remove the cable - you should notice that the drive has stopped spinning so you won't hear that spin-down. Note: after the 30mins, if you open My Computer, or empty the recycle bin etc, you'll hear it spin up again... Portable external hard drives will constantly spin, they don't spin down like the mains powered ones. Are you sure? Because my portable WD hard drive definitely stops spinning if it's not accessed for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jamesyfx Subscriber² Posted April 1, 2011 Subscriber² Share Posted April 1, 2011 Are you sure? Because my portable WD hard drive definitely stops spinning if it's not accessed for a while. I've not tested one myself, but where I work and we've all been trained to say that they don't stop spinning. :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalalawawawa Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 Usually I just leave the drive plugged in for an extra 30mins, so it's not being used, and then just remove the cable - you should notice that the drive has stopped spinning so you won't hear that spin-down. That is the power plan you use taking action, I think. I'm asking because I'm worried about data corruption. :) I can't wait sometimes 30 minutes (20 minutes in my case) for the drive to shut down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo003 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 James is right, and its not WD's design it's Windows itself. Try searching WD support fr spindown utility, It should be in legacy product I forgot where I've seen it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoko Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 This is one of the things I like about Samsung's external drives. They have a power switch right on the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalalawawawa Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 I guess I shouldn't worry about the drive spinning when I remove it from my lappy, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhav Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 That is the power plan you use taking action, I think. I'm asking because I'm worried about data corruption. :) I can't wait sometimes 30 minutes (20 minutes in my case) for the drive to shut down. Ahh ok! That makes sense. Cheers. (turns out mine's also set to 20mins lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Portable external hard drives will constantly spin, they don't spin down like the mains powered ones. The 2.5 portable drives will spin down if unplugged since they are powered over USB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjx Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 The drive does spin down if you use the WD Essentials software to remove it. I can't be bothered with installing that though - taking my chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamawesomewicked Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 People are too paranoid... as long as you havent transferred like a mega huge file within the last 5 minutes or so, i'd say it's safe to just unplug it.. that's all I ever do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philcruicks Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 yeah, safely remove to make sure nothing is accessing it but then I just pull my drives, shouldn't damage them really...there are far worse things you can do to a drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalalawawawa Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 People are too paranoid... as long as you havent transferred like a mega huge file within the last 5 minutes or so, i'd say it's safe to just unplug it.. that's all I ever do. Is 300GB of data "mega huge"? :D I'll leave it "ejected", but plugged in, just to see if it spins down on its own. Also, mate, I paid a little over 100 pounds for this thing, I don;t want to burn it on day one. :( :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozgeek Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 My Seagate external drives automatically spin down after a while of non use. I have two of those http://www.seagate.com/www/en-au/products/external/expansion/expansion_desktop (one is 1TB, and the other 2TB) When I'm not working on it or not transfering stuff on or off it, I can just unplug it USB or Power cable (whether it is spinning or not. I've done this hundreds of times, they are all still fine. Just as long as you are not working on the drive, you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts