external hard drive questions (about turing off, heating)

[alee25]

i am very new with external hadr drives, and i was just wondering about heating. I have a bytecc aluminum 3.5 hard drive enclosure. After leaving it on with a 120gb hard drive for a night it gets really hot - is this normal?

also is it ok to just turn the hard drive off by unplugging it from teh power outlet while it still is connected to the computer? Or is this bad for the hard drive? How can i safely shut down the harddrive

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: alee25
i am very new with external hadr drives, and i was just wondering about heating. I have a bytecc aluminum 3.5 hard drive enclosure. After leaving it on with a 120gb hard drive for a night it gets really hot - is this normal?

They usually get a bit warm. It it's *really* hot, the drive you have in it might be putting out too much heat. There's a reason a lot of those external drives use 5400RPM and/or laptop hard drives.

also is it ok to just turn the hard drive off by unplugging it from teh power outlet while it still is connected to the computer? Or is this bad for the hard drive? How can i safely shut down the harddrive

You should use the icon in your system tray to 'remove' the drive first, so that Windows isn't in the middle of reading or writing some file when you pull it (just like with any removable storage device). Alternatively, you can disable write caching for the device, and then you can unplug it at any time that you're not actively using it.

 

[alee25]

how do i disable write caching?

also is there a way that when i turn off my computer, the external harddrive also shuts off?

 

[corkyg]

To disable Write Caching for any external device:

Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, then open up DISK DRIVES and right click on your External drive. Go to the POLICIES tab and uncheck PERFORMANCE and check the quick removal box instead.

I turn off my external drives by connecting them to a plug box and simply switching it off. You can plug your computer in and do it all. The only way that the computer can turn it off is if the external power device is plugged in to the computer's monitor power port.