Simple NVMe question: Do you need to eject?

[jent]

I recently bought a base Mac mini M4 and one of those third-party hubs that goes right under the Mac mini and fits it perfectly. It also has an NVMe slot so I was able to get a 2TB SSD for some additional storage. Coming from the land of external enclosures, where I typically only connected drives when needing them in the moment, and manually ejecting them when done, I'm wondering what I need to know about this always-attached storage. Back in the day I had a G4 tower with four internal HDD slots, and they all had the standard internal hard disk icon, but the NVMe SSD shows up with that orange external drive icon in macOS and it makes me subconsciously think I need to be ejecting it every time before putting the computer to sleep. What should I know about this new setup? Thanks!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I never eject my NVMe drive; it's been connected to two different Mac minis for about 3 years now.

 

[ignatius345]

the NVMe SSD shows up with that orange external drive icon in macOS and it makes me subconsciously think I need to be ejecting it every time before putting the computer to sleep. What should I know about this new setup? Thanks!

I've never ejected any external drive before sleeping the machine, unless I intend to physically disconnect it and put it away. My external media SSD and backup HDD both stay attached to my iMac 24/7, sleeping or awake.

 

[Brian33]

You only need to eject it when you:
(1) want to power-off the hub, or
(2) want to physically disconnect the hub from the Mini

Otherwise, just leave it mounted, even through sleep, shutdown, or reboot.