Eject Time Machine Backup Upon Failure???

[tinkletwink1]

I have an external 750gb Western Digital Blue hard drive in an OWC Express Enclosure connected through USB as a back up hard drive for my iMac running time machine.

Now, when I first did my backup I accidentally disconnected the hard drive without ejecting it which made it error. I couldn't access the information, so I had to reformat it and backup my information again.


Here is the question; if you have a backup hooked up to your computer and your internal hard drive fails, how do you eject the external drive properly so you get to keep your information?

 

[marsmissions]

Your internal drive will not just explode into a ball of flames, hard drive failure is symptomatic and slow. If your hard drive is failing you will know about it, and have plenty of time to eject your external.

Hard drive failure usually manifests as slow corruption of files. You will usually start to notice when your computer fails to boot. Which is before the external will be mounted. It won't just fail as your computer is running.

This is a non issue, and something you shouldn't worry about.

 

[tinkletwink1]

That is news to me. I though hard drives could freeze up and fail....running or not. Not to mention, I pretty much never turn my computer off.


So I guess the real answer is that if it fails while sleeping or running then you are screwed whether or not you have a back up drive or not because there is no way to properly eject your external back up.

If this is the case, then maybe I should just keep my back up unplugged and manually back up my system once a week. That way I won't have to worry about the ejecting issue.