[Derek Jeter]

I was wondering if having my External harddrive on while shutting down my PC can hurt the HD? Earlier today, I accidentally shut down my PC before I could safely remove my external HD. Shortly afterwards, with my HD still on, I turned the PC back on and safely removed the hardware. I haven't seen any indication thus far that anything bad happened to the drive...I'd just like to know if I was being reckless. The last thing I need right now is having my external HD mysteriously losing data and crashing.

Thanks.

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I don't think any damage can occur if you turn off the computer properly. Specifically, concerning the external HD, I believe that turning off is equal, eventually, to a safe removal of usb device. It shuts off the data and power lines to the usb device. The fact that the motor inside the HD keeps running has no influence because it gets power from an external source.

[The Skeptic]

I don't think any damage can occur if you turn off the computer properly. Specifically, concerning the external HD, I believe that turning off is equal, eventually, to a safe removal of usb device. It shuts off the data and power lines to the usb device. The fact that the motor inside the HD keeps running has no influence because it gets power from an external source.

[redline582]

Really using the safe remove utility isnt needed, all it does is to make sure that there is no data being transferred to the device so if you arent putting anything onto the HDD or taking something off it should be safe to unplug it. If you accidently do shut down your PC just dont rush to turn it back on. Usually wait 10-15 sec for the HDD to finish spinning down because if its slowing down and you turn it back on, the sudden increase in speed can actually warp the disk, making it unreadable.