Shut down external hard drives or pc first

[Guest]

Hi,

What's the best method of shutting down a pc with external hard drives.
Should the pc be shut down first or should the external hard drives be turned
off first?

I hope I get more than one reply, especially if they're conflicting.

Denise

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Shut down the machine first..

 

[Mistoffolees]

Hi,

What's the best method of shutting down a pc with external hard drives.
Should the pc be shut down first or should the external hard drives be turned
off first?

I hope I get more than one reply, especially if they're conflicting.

Denise

Option 1: Shut down the computer and then shut down the
external HD.

OPtion 2: Stop external drive via icon in system tray. Next,
unplug and remove the external drive from port. Finally, shut
it down.

 

[Jonny]

Hi,

What's the best method of shutting down a pc with external hard drives.
Should the pc be shut down first or should the external hard drives be
turned
off first?

I hope I get more than one reply, especially if they're conflicting.

Denise

I treat all removable media the same in XP that can be written to. These
include a firewire connnected hard drive and a Sandisk thumb drive 1GB. I
connect the thumb drive after XP is on. I turn on the firewire connected
hard drive after XP is on. Before turning off the PC, or exiting XP, I
disconnect both with the removable media icon. Remove the thumb drive, and
turn off the firewire connected hard drive.
Similarly, using packet writing software known as INCD. I insert such a
formatted writable CD after XP is on. And, I remove the same CD before
turning off the PC or exiting XP.
Normally speaking, after done with such media, I remove it immediately.
Instead of doing so as part of prior to shutting down or rebooting XP.
Removable writable media was not meant to be in its writing device when not
used. Will let you figure out why.

 

[LVTravel]

Both Mike and Mistoffolees are correct.

If you shut down the hard drive by simply turning the drive off before
"stopping" it by using the "Safely Remove Hardware" utility located in the
system tray you may cause file corruption.

When I have my portable drive/s attached to my laptop I always shut down the
computer first (as this flushes all the caches to the proper hard drive/s)
and then turn off the hard drive once the computer has shut down.

 

[aus]

The above are correct, however there are two settings which you will
find in the properties of the drive - one allows you to remove the drive
without using the 'safely remove..' applet. It does this by disabling
any write delay to the hard disk (write cache).

The other option is to enable write caching which should make drive
operation faster but just unplugging can corrupt files.

The options are in right click the drive Properties/Hardware/Highlight
the disk/Properties button/Policies tab


I run all my sites with 'Optimize for quick removal' as you never know
when a cable may be pulled etc. by mistake; and the disks still runs
fine for me. I do however always user the 'safely remove..' option whatever.

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Unless the parent system is to be kept in a 'powered up' state, there is
nothing to be gained by 'safe removing' hardware.. when closing down a
system, the parent machine should be first.. when powering up a system, all
external devices should be powered up BEFORE the parent machine is booted..

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Johnny

If a user is going to power down a system, the main system should be powered
down first, followed by external devices.. this prevents the system
registering errors because it can't see what it expects to be there.. when
powering back up, all external devices should be powered up first such that
the system acknowledges the fact that they exist and are available..
computers users from way back have always done this.. it is true that some
modern devices are hot pluggable, but not all.. hence the above procedure is
always the safest way..

Not sure why you introduced the 'multiple PC' scenario.. perhaps to
confuse..

 

[Anna]

(THE ISSUE IS WHETHER A USB EXTERNAL HD SHOULD BE POWERED OFF BEFORE OR
AFTER THE COMPUTER IS SHUT DOWN)

The following comments are based on our experience with USB 2.0 external HDs
over the past four years. We've worked with dozens of different makes/models
of these devices in scores of different XP systems.

1. Assuming that the "Optimize for quick removal" default option has been
selected in Device Manager...

2. In virtually every case it will make no difference whether the USBEHD is
powered off before or after the PC is shut down. There will be no data
corruption nor any hardware problem affecting the USBEHD. The only reason I
say "virtually" is that there's always the possibility of some rare event
occurring that will introduce some sort of glitch affecting the data and/or
hardware. Frankly, I can't recall ever running into such a "glitch", but
we've learned a long time ago not to use the words "never" or "always" when
discussing computer operations.

3. Obviously, it's important that while the USBEHD is in use involving
either large data transfer or disk cloning operations or disk maintenance
operations, the device is not powered off. Let it finish its work.

On a related issue involving these USBEHD devices, we *have* run into
situations where is some cases the USBEHD device had to be connected &
powered up during the system boot before the system would recognized the
device. Strangely enough, we've encountered the opposite instance where the
device would be recognized by the system *only after* bootup and then the
device was connected/powered up. In most cases, however, it simply didn't
matter.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for your responses. Since the manufacturer didn't state which
method is acceptable for the external hd, it was good to hear the pros and
cons of each method and your opinions.

Denise

 

[Jonny]

You make it sound like a multiple PC network sharing hard drives, rather
than a standalone PC with external hard drive(s).

There is nothing gained in powering down external hard drives before or
after the PC is shutdown.

The sooner external media (which is normally used for user files only) is
removed from the system is done lessens the chances of data loss in event of
problems with the PC. Problems being hardware or software oriented.