USB cable with power switch for external HDD

[chika7ilo]

I was wondering if i made this good, i have external WD 1TB ( http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 10&lang=en ) and it does not have any power switch to turn it off and on.
So i made a usb cable with a power switch so that i don't have to unplug it all the time.

Can i just turn the power of and on without using the safely remove hardware, and can this all damage the HDD when using the power switch.

[Major_A]

Very cool. I've never Safely Removed anything from a USB port and never had an issue. I believe this fear of breaking something stems back to Windows 98/ME and how it handled USB devices. Either I was told or read somewhere that after XP this was a suggestion more than a requirement.

The only time I did have an issue with not safely removing a flash drive was when the file was "done" but it wasn't and I would've known that if I went to remove the drive via Safely Remove.

[chika7ilo]

Thanks for the answer.

[vicaphit]

My advice would be to watch the HDD activity LED on the drive (If there is one) and make sure it isn't writing or reading data before powering off.

My USB stick has an LED flashing light when it is reading/writing and I never unplug it while that is flashing.

[Sporg]

I've seen where not using the "safely remove" feature has had bad consequences twice over the years. Both times were on XP machines. Neither of these instances were on a rig of mine and doing a system restore fixed whatever ended up being goofy. I'm trying to remember the symptoms, but it's been a while. Anyway, it's a quick click that I would do if you are powering off the drive. That ensures that it isn't in the middle of doing something. Just my two Kinah...

[Wootzors20]

The one caution I've heard consistently regarding powering down a USB external hdd or other storage device is that if it's powered down while actively writing to the device, data corruption can occur. Probably not likely, but a risk nonetheless if you cut the power mid-write. I think "safely removing" the device in software simply ensures that the OS can't write to the device. Just a thought.

-W

[Darkstar]

I was wondering if i made this good, i have external WD 1TB ( http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 10&lang=en ) and it does not have any power switch to turn it off and on.
So i made a usb cable with a power switch so that i don't have to unplug it all the time.

Can i just turn the power of and on without using the safely remove hardware, and can this all damage the HDD when using the power switch.

when you use the safely remove hardware with that specific WD unit, the HD powers down and then the unit powers down. The led light will turn off meaning the unit is off, no need to unplug it.