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    Increasing Unsafe Shutdown Count (SMART) on External USB Drive?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by kimiraikkonen, Nov 7, 2015.

  1. kimiraikkonen

    kimiraikkonen Notebook Evangelist

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    Hi guys,
    I couldn't find specific section to open this thread, hope this is correct place, something related to software. I'm using W7 x64 SP1 and I have a Toshiba 3.0 External Drive (Stor.e Basics) connected to my Asus notebook's USB 3.0 (Fresco) port, working just fine. But what i found out is, ALTHOUGH everytime i safely remove the drive by clicking the icon on taskbar, the SMART "Unsafe Shutdown Count" attiribute is incremented by 1. So far i plugged in-and-out 27 times and this value is 27. It's incerasing.

    Note that the drive is NOT powered off as default action on Windows 7 when click on you "safely remove" icon. And; following this article for USB 3.0 hubs (like Fresco) does NOT work to fully power of connected USB drivers during safe removal:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2401954

    What should i do, any comments?

    Thanks in advance.
     

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    Last edited: Nov 7, 2015
    kimiraikkonen, Nov 7, 2015
    #1
  2. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    Disconnecting does not seem to get the drive to park.
     
    TANWare, Nov 7, 2015
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  3. alexhawker

    alexhawker Spent Gladiator

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    Return/exchange the external drive?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    alexhawker, Nov 7, 2015
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  4. kimiraikkonen

    kimiraikkonen Notebook Evangelist

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    So? Couldn't understand what you mean. When the drive is safely removed, the heads are loaded off and supposed to park. However here is what i found, as you see in the screenshot i've previously posted, C0 is actually "Power-off Retract Count" and HDTune seems misleading us by saying "Unsafe Shutdown Count".
    So, isn't it normal? Eventhough the drive isn't powered off when you safely remove it, the drive heads seem to park and this value is incremented by means of "Power-off Retract Count" which is described as following on Wikipedia:

    "Count of times the heads are loaded off the media. Heads can be unloaded without actually powering off."

    As long as the drive is working, it's useless to RMA the drive and i bet they find nothing including denial of SMART info as a problem.
     
    kimiraikkonen, Nov 8, 2015
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  5. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    Even though the power is there the heads can go to a park position and then either idle or just spin down. My USB 3.0 3.5" and 2.5" drives in the dock do this all the time.

    Edit, my 2,.0 TB does this the most but it has 1567 in the data. Kind of strange.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2015
    TANWare, Nov 8, 2015
    #5