If my laptop is closed, can I simply unplug a Time Machine USB backup drive, or must I open the laptop and "eject" the drive properly? I have been doing the latter just to be careful. Thanks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can I safely unplug a USB hard drive while my laptop is closed?
- Thread starter bollweevil
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple 26.2
macrumors 6502a
Hey Jude
macrumors 6502a
I agree. I learnt the hard way that that is safer: I lost about 400gb of movies stored on an external HD after doing this a couple times, and ruined a perfectly great WD drive.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
I understand if its asleep, but does it harm the hdd even if the pc is completely shut off?
I understand if its asleep, but does it harm the hdd even if the pc is completely shut off?
Apple 26.2
macrumors 6502a
If a computer is shut down, doesn't it perform the similar "eject" command during the shut down routine?
Once it is off, the drive is already "ejected" and would be identical to unmounting it manually in the OS and then unplugging it.
In the case of sleep though, it will be more proper to wake and eject.
Btw unmounting errors are not serious enough to wipe a whole drive, it just means it may become less compatible with more sensitive devices -and this lasts only until it is properly remounted and unmounted again.
It's not that serious.
Once it is off, the drive is already "ejected" and would be identical to unmounting it manually in the OS and then unplugging it.
In the case of sleep though, it will be more proper to wake and eject.
Btw unmounting errors are not serious enough to wipe a whole drive, it just means it may become less compatible with more sensitive devices -and this lasts only until it is properly remounted and unmounted again.
It's not that serious.