Basic question about using external hard drives

Hi all,

Now that I'm using 2 external hard drives, I'm still not clear on the best way to use them. I have Western Digital Passport external hard drives, no power switch on them.

Normally I keep them connected only when I'm using them for a period of time, power them off using the system tray icon, then pull them out. But I'm wondering if I have to pull them out from my laptop after I do the "safely remove hardware" bit.

If I leave them connected after powering down, is there a way to power them up again? Or do I need to physically disconnect from the laptop after powering down, and then physically reconnect to power up again? Seems not the best thing to keep plugging and unplugging.

Thanks,
Karen

 

Hi, Im a newbie to this site, your my first post/reply.

Yes highly reccomended that you do the "remove usb device' first. It is safe and you dont have to power off. If your usb hdd has a led light on it you may see it change colour or go out this is not a definite though, when the 'its now safe to remove said hardware" appears all is good..just remember to get the right drive that has been disconnected.

Also if the laptop is powered off, and the devices recieve power via the usb from the laptop, then its safe to unplug them when the power is off on the laptop. To be overly careful you may want to unplug the power directly from the laptop prior to this, just to be extra careful.

I work with a number of laptops and sometimes they can get a "suge detected on usb port" while in windows. The laptop will be having an extra drain on the power supply with two usb hard drives, i wouldnt like to try burning a dvd and at the same time doing a Hard disk defragment or other intensive loads on the power supply, as it puts extra demands / stress on the laptops power supply.
How this affects the laptop all depends on the power rating and the quality of the power supply.

P.S
I have had a friend just pull a usb memory stick / flash drive out of the back of my primary pc with out safely removing it and now occassionally i get the sound it makes when the a drive is removed, when there is no actual drive present to be removed..its not regular but it is a bit off putting when it happens.

Anyways either ither is the quick answer your obviously not just ripping the drive out while the unit is powered on.. and if you are using the correct method to disconnect usb devices while the unit is powered on you should be all good.

Have an awesome day, hope this helped.

 

You don't have to unplug them to power them up again the quickest way would be to unplug them and replug, If you don't want to then....
Click on Start button -> Click on Run -> type in "devmgmt.msc" without the quotes-> Click on OK..
This will open up the device manager.
Double click on the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" icon on the device manager, and you will now see a couple of "USB Root Hub". Right click on the first one, and select "Disable". Right click on it again and select enable. If the Removeable has not returned, try the same process on the next usb root hub. If it has returned then close device manager.

 

Welcome, and thanks for all the good info! I keep my laptop on all day, and now I'm gathering that it may be better for the external drives to keep them on all day too, rather than to keep connecting and disconnecting them several times a day.

It just seems odd that once I power down the external drive, if I leave the plug in there's no way to power it back on without pulling the plug and putting it back in. So I guess it's best to just leave it in, since I'm accessing it a few times a day.

Thanks again!
Karen