Tip & Trick | How to prolong external hard disk Safely remove or Shutdown. SSD/HDD Check Tools

86technie

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I have a few old hard disk, oldest till day is around 8 years old.
The Seagate Backup plus I own till today is still working fine.

20131210_233153.jpg


For me, I usually shutdown the PC than remove the external hard disk.
As safely remove the hard disk does not cut the electrical current thus the hard disk
is still spinning.

Overtime when the disk is still spinning and you just pull out the HDD
will not only fail and data will be corrupted.
So recommended will be shutdown so the HDD stop spinning before pulling out.

There are HDD check tools like Seagate Seatools

https://www.seagate.com/sg/en/support/downloads/seatools/

This tool now is able to check all brands of HDD as well as external HDD.
SSD wise, usually manufacturers like Samsung, Sandisk, WD have their tool.
The easiest way to detect SSD failure is to run Crystaldiskmark.

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskmark/

SSD is like RAM, when you stress test it using Crystaldiskmark and it crashes/PC restart than that means the SSD have failed.
HDD failure is usually the tick tick sound while SSD is tricky to identify.

HDD have higher chance of data recovery as compare with SSD.
For SSD data are stored on memory chips so if data are corrupted it will be lost while HDD data are store on the disk platter.

Unless you did a low level format to HDD than the data will be lost.
If you wish to store important data/files, HDD is still the best choice over SSD.

SSD is fast but for external SSD just take note it is limited by USB controller.
Those who often have to bring a external hard disk outdoors, there are Lacie rugged portal hard disk.

Hope this helps, if you have any tips feel free to share.
 

localITguy

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yes, you are right, even with extl HDD after you eject the drive. it will spin still. (windows will tell you it's safe to remove the device...)
I will wait for the drive to stop spinning before unplugging the drive
 

Mach3.2

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Power is usually still supplied to the USB ports even after you completely shutdown your computer.

Just eject the drive and wait for your drive to spin down.
 
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Power is usually still supplied to the USB ports even after you completely shutdown your computer.

Just eject the drive and wait for your drive to spin down.


bro, eject liao.............the HDD continue to spin non-stop leh ................

must wait how long then it will stop ?
 

86technie

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bro, eject liao.............the HDD continue to spin non-stop leh ................

must wait how long then it will stop ?

Windows eject? It won't stop unless you shutdown the PC.
Take note depending on the USB port if it is a USB charging dedicated port
power will be supplied to the HDD thus it will still spin.
 
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Windows eject? It won't stop unless you shutdown the PC.
Take note depending on the USB port if it is a USB charging dedicated port
power will be supplied to the HDD thus it will still spin.

if put pc to sleep.............still will spin, right ?

if so, then must shut down pc.............switch off PSU via on/off switch........then it will stop spinning ?
 

86technie

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if put pc to sleep.............still will spin, right ?

if so, then must shut down pc.............switch off PSU via on/off switch........then it will stop spinning ?

Yes correct, it's troublesome but if you want to prolong external hard disk life this is the way
to do so.
If your PC is connected directly to the mains than can just switch off the mains.
 
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