External Drive Bay Risks of Hard Drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter Htnakirs
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Htnakirs

I have been using an external drive bay to power an 3.5 ' 80 GB hard
disk. It has an independent power source, and doesn't run off USB
power.

I am concerned about the effect of cutting off power to the hard disk.
Unlike internal 3.5' hard disks where the SMPS does the powering down,
in this case I have to switch off the independent power source. Is this
'abrupt' switching off healthy? So far I have not faced any data
corruption, but probably XP doesn't check USB mass storage devices for
data integrity (or does it?). Ofcourse I switch it off only after using
the "safely disconnect drive" routine.

Does anyone have a long term usage opinion on this?
 
Htnakirs said:
I have been using an external drive bay to power an 3.5 ' 80 GB hard
disk. It has an independent power source, and doesn't run off USB
power.

I am concerned about the effect of cutting off power to the hard disk.
Unlike internal 3.5' hard disks where the SMPS does the powering down,
in this case I have to switch off the independent power source. Is this
'abrupt' switching off healthy? So far I have not faced any data
corruption, but probably XP doesn't check USB mass storage devices for
data integrity (or does it?). Ofcourse I switch it off only after using
the "safely disconnect drive" routine.

Does anyone have a long term usage opinion on this?
Click to expand...
Always use the little icon in your systray (bottom right of
screen to stop a USB device.
Windows will make sure it`s safe to remove it then.
That way you don`t risk data corruption.

bw..OJ
 
Always use the little icon in your systray (bottom right of
screen to stop a USB device.
Windows will make sure it`s safe to remove it then.
That way you don`t risk data corruption.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, I always do that. But the drive is still spinning when I
switch off the power. That is what I am worried about.
 
Always use the little icon in your systray (bottom right of
screen to stop a USB device.
Windows will make sure it`s safe to remove it then.
That way you don`t risk data corruption.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, I always do that. But the drive is still spinning when I
switch off the power. That is what I am worried about.
 
Htnakirs said:
I have been using an external drive bay to power an 3.5 ' 80 GB hard
disk. It has an independent power source, and doesn't run off USB
power.

I am concerned about the effect of cutting off power to the hard disk.
Unlike internal 3.5' hard disks where the SMPS does the powering down,
in this case I have to switch off the independent power source. Is this
'abrupt' switching off healthy? So far I have not faced any data
corruption, but probably XP doesn't check USB mass storage devices for
data integrity (or does it?). Ofcourse I switch it off only after using
the "safely disconnect drive" routine.

Does anyone have a long term usage opinion on this?
Click to expand...
Just tell the computer to safely remove, like
you do with flash usb sticks,just be sure that
the disk is inactive.
Usualy I just click on the small button in the
task bar on the right.Then switch off.
 
Htnakirs said:
I have been using an external drive bay to power an 3.5 ' 80 GB hard
disk. It has an independent power source, and doesn't run off USB
power.

I am concerned about the effect of cutting off power to the hard disk.
Unlike internal 3.5' hard disks where the SMPS does the powering down,
in this case I have to switch off the independent power source. Is this
'abrupt' switching off healthy? So far I have not faced any data
corruption, but probably XP doesn't check USB mass storage devices for
data integrity (or does it?). Ofcourse I switch it off only after using
the "safely disconnect drive" routine.

Does anyone have a long term usage opinion on this?
Click to expand...

Well, some of you guys just have so much free time to find more thing to
worry. So for the "..long term usage opinion.." I would suggest to try to
outlive the hard drive <g>

- I started using computer in 70's and haven't had any hard drive damaged by
OPPD, and they have never given me any warning when they made the switch (or
turn off power)

- Damaged data, I don't pay much attention or never expect the data will be
good (100% complete) when power is out or system crashes in the middle of
processing. So for your health, you may wanna spend some extra money on the
Battery-Back-Up device for the peace of mind.

- Internal or external, when OPPD or mother-natural plays the trick then
everything will be out of luck.. data in middle of processing should be
corrupted, turky in oven will be 1/2 cooked, ice in the frig will start to
melt, and we will be live in the dark etc..

So, enjoy life and try not to worry about thing you have no control of.
 
As mentioned, I always do that. But the drive is still spinning when I
switch off the power. That is what I am worried about.
Click to expand...

Why are you worried? What do you think happens to the internal hard
disk(s) when you shut down the power to your computer?

As the posters said, shut down the USB port with the tray icon to
prevent data corruption. Now the disk is effectively idle and you can
disconnect it.

BTW, you did the right thing to get an external power supply. The USB
port will supply power but sometimes it is not sufficient for 3.5"
drives.


--

"Yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain
ends, there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or
alter the legislative, when they find the legislative act contrary to
the trust reposed in them....And thus the community perpetually retains
a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of
any body, even of their legislators, whenever they shall be so foolish
or so wicked as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and
properties of the subject."
--John Locke
 
Htnakirs said:
I have been using an external drive bay to power an 3.5 ' 80 GB hard
disk. It has an independent power source, and doesn't run off USB power.
Click to expand...
I am concerned about the effect of cutting off power to the hard
disk. Unlike internal 3.5' hard disks where the SMPS does the
powering down, in this case I have to switch off the independent
power source. Is this 'abrupt' switching off healthy?
Click to expand...

As long as you use the 'safely disconnect' stuff in XP its fine.
So far I have not faced any data corruption, but probably XP doesn't
check USB mass storage devices for data integrity (or does it?).
Click to expand...

Yes, thats what the safely disconnect is about.
Ofcourse I switch it off only after using the "safely disconnect drive" routine.
Click to expand...
Does anyone have a long term usage opinion on this?
Click to expand...

Thats the whole point of the safely disconnect function.
The drive itself doesnt care about the power being
turned off, what matters is ensuring that there arent
any writes still pending on the drive at the OS level etc.
 
It is no more or less abrupt than if other, internal SMPS
were to turn off, though in that case it is hopefully after
the OS had caused the shutdown and had emptied all buffers
to disk. Same with externals, the safely disconnect ensures
there isn't a buffer waiting to be written. Either way, the
drive hardware should be fine- it's a matter of data
corruption or loss.
As long as you use the 'safely disconnect' stuff in XP its fine.
Click to expand...

Eject can work too.


Yes, thats what the safely disconnect is about.
Click to expand...

This might be misconstrued, safely disconnect doesn't run a
scandisk or anything like this to check the drive it just
completes any cached I/O before saying it's ok to remove it.
So, it doesn't check for data integrity at all in the
typical sense.



Yes, for long term use don't use an external drive, unless
you are certain it has sufficient active cooling (unless a
very well heatsunk laptop or other specially designated
low-power drive) and a quality power supply. Some of the
low end generic single drive enclosures have about as crude
a power supply as it gets- particularly when internal rather
than a power brick. Beyond that, if your system USB or the
enclosure chipset isn't flaky, it should continue working
fine long term. That is, in general... any one unit can
randomly fail, I wouldn't trust the only copy of a backup to
a single-drive external enclosure.
 
It is no more or less abrupt than if other, internal SMPS
were to turn off, though in that case it is hopefully after
the OS had caused the shutdown and had emptied all buffers
to disk.
Click to expand...

What is the shutdown sequence in terms of processes? Imagine you have
just told the OS to shutdown. What steps now occur? I am particularly
interested in how the OS communicates with the power SMPS.


--

"Yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain
ends, there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or
alter the legislative, when they find the legislative act contrary to
the trust reposed in them....And thus the community perpetually retains
a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of
any body, even of their legislators, whenever they shall be so foolish
or so wicked as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and
properties of the subject."
--John Locke
 
What is the shutdown sequence in terms of processes? Imagine
you have just told the OS to shutdown. What steps now occur?
Click to expand...

The processes that are running are told to shut down and those
that dont do what they are told are terminated anyway after a
delay that allows the user to terminate the shutdown if he wants.

Then all the buffers are flushed to the physical drive,
and then the OS tells the power supply to shut down.
I am particularly interested in how the OS communicates with the power SMPS.
Click to expand...

Thats done using the PS_ON# line in the ATX power connector.

Or more strictly the OS tells the motherboard ACPI functionality
to shut down and it tells the power supply to shut down like that,
after all the buffers have been flushed etc.
 
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