External HD Eject

[UWF404]

Is there any harm in just unplugging USB without first ejecting drive? I've got external HD at work I plug in via USB to my Macbook Pro. When I go home I get lazy and would like to just unplug. Is there not a more automated way other than manually ejecting drive before removing cable?

 

[EricNau]

Yes, you must eject the disk before removing any drive (esp. hard drives).

(If you don't want to drag the icon down to the trash, you can right click and chose "Eject" if you find that easier.)

 

[mad jew]

Is it really so hard? If data is being transferred between the drives then that data may get corrupted. If the drive is powered via the Firewire or USB cable then giving it a hard shut down may eventually take its toll too. Remember that with apps like Spotlight, data can be transferred between the drive and your Mac at times you'd not normally expect. Just eject it each time.

 

[JNB]

There's also the eject icon in the sidebar of the Finder window (though that's the most "labor intensive" of the methods).

I'm guilty of that as well, but only with flash drives. Never a HDD, though, regardless of the connection method. As has been mentioned already, hard drives can be transferring data at any point, and "bad things" can happen.

 

[rain dogs]

I just removed my external harddrive from my new Macbook Aluminium without ejecting it first. And now when i connect it i get a message saying that the disc cannot be read. The options i get are ignore, eject or Format.

When i connect it to a PC and try to open it it says "This disc has not been formatted, format now?"

I really dont want to loose the data i have on this disc, is there any way at all i could access the data? If i format that means everything is lost right? I have access to both a Mac and a PC if that helps...

All help is appreciated! thanks

 

[kolax]

Plug it in and load Disk Utility. Then select the external hard drive and click Verify.

 

[rain dogs]

Plug it in and load Disk Utility. Then select the external hard drive and click Verify.

Thanks for a quick response! This is my first mac ever and ive only had it for a day, so im not quite used to OSX yet. I managed to find Disk Utility and my external drive appears to the left, but where do i find the "Verify" option?

Again, thank you so much for helping!

 

[eluk]

Highlight your external and you'll see a button 'Verify Disk' on the "First Aid" tab.

 

[sickmacdoc]

But keep in mind that the "Verify" button will do just that-- it will only look at the disk and verify if there is a problem or not.

The "Repair" button in the same location will need to be tried if verify reports any problems.