Removing external hard drive

[Bow Rekk]

This may be a bit of a stupid question but I don't know a lot about what is actually happening when my mac is sleeping.

Can I just remove my external hard drive without having to un-mount it when my macbook pro is asleep or do I have to wake it up, un-mount it and put it back to sleep again without potentially wiping my hard drive?

Also, if i can do this, would I have to connect the hard drive again before I wake it up?

Thanks, I'd really appreciate an answer to this one.

 

[bwilliams1188]

i know that i have removed my flash drive while my computer has been asleep and it will come up with a window that says "The device you removed was not properly put away..."
Your computer is still "On" and still recognizes input devices, so yes, if you do not want to potentially erase your external hd, i would wake the computer back up and remove it and then put it back to sleep. But as long as i am not running anything from my flash drive when i "un-properly" remove it, i never have any problems with it being erased. I have no idea how that compares to a hardrive...

as far as plugging it back in while it is still asleep, i think ur fine, you do not need to wake it back up to mount it. It may recognize it when it wakes back up.

But do not take my word for it, this if just for a flash drive. I know hard drives use a different memory system...

 

[Bow Rekk]

Thanks very much.
If it does that with your flash drive then I would imagine it is not a good idea.