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    External hard drives

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by jagernat1, Jan 17, 2011.

  1. jagernat1

    jagernat1 Notebook Enthusiast

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    When I eject my external hard drive the plate is still spinning. How do I fully stop the plate? I'm just worried that it will wear down my drive. I have to wait 10 min for the plate to stop or just unplug it. I have the sxps 16.
     
    jagernat1, Jan 17, 2011
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  2. roastedpork

    roastedpork Notebook Deity

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    When you say eject you mean you've selected it for ejecting via the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media utility?
     
    roastedpork, Jan 17, 2011
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  3. jagernat1

    jagernat1 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, after ejecting via the Safely Remove Hardware. I still feel the disk spinning, so I don't do anything. What is "Eject Media utility"? Is that how you stop yours?
     
    jagernat1, Jan 17, 2011
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  4. fakename

    fakename Notebook Geek

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    even though you have removed the drive from the O/S, power is still being routed to it. as long as it doesn't say it's "still in use" then you can safely disconnected/unplug, the platters will stop moving.
     
    fakename, Jan 17, 2011
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  5. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    It depends upon how the external drive was designed. Many drives continue to run at full speed and full power even after being "removed". My older WD and Datatec drives are like that.

    However, my newer WD Passport Essential SE drive powers down and stops spinning after being "removed".
     
    toronto, Jan 19, 2011
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  6. jagernat1

    jagernat1 Notebook Enthusiast

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    @toronto
    yeah i have the WD passport essential 250gb. Is there a way to stop from device manager? maybe usb hubs? Because after ejecting from windows the disk still spin then when I unplug it I can hear a ticking sound from the drive. I just want to be careful not to damage the drive everytime I unplug it.
     
    jagernat1, Jan 20, 2011
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  7. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    As I said, it depends upon how the external drive was designed. The WD Passport Essential SE drive powers down and stops spinning after being "removed", because it was designed that way. I think the earlier, smaller, Passport Essential drives (not SE) don't have that feature.
     
    toronto, Jan 21, 2011
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  8. NoAirBanding

    NoAirBanding Notebook Geek

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    I depends on the drive enclosure. The drive inside your computer keeps spinning until it looses power too. That's normal.
     
    NoAirBanding, Jan 21, 2011
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