Un-mounting an external HDD

[bp1000]

I've always religiously un-mounted an external drive / USB stick correctly.

I'm getting lazy and wondered if i could provoke data loss or even damage if i just yank the USB cable out if my mba is on / sleeping.

The drive has all of my videos / lossless music so i use it to stream to airport express and apple tv. It also does my time machine backups.

If the mba is sleeping could i pull out the USB cable without data loss?

 

[miles01110]

Yes, you could lose data if you just pull out the cord. It takes almost no time to eject a hard drive... keep doing what you are doing.

 

[minifridge1138]

Technically, it is possible that you would lose some data.

To be safe, always eject.

I don't always and have never had a problem, but I like to live dangerously.

 

[bp1000]

ok no problem

like you say it doesn't take a second to open the lid and un-mount


i should stop being so lazy