Using external hard drive

[Avocetz]

Hi

Sorry if this seems a stupid question. I have a new external hard drive which I am starting to use for music files etc. I have connected the drive via its USB cable, but instead of plugging and unplugging the cable and going through the "remove hardware" procedure, I just switch it on and off using the drive power switch. Any reasons why I should not use this method?

Thanks for any advice

Chris

[naz_nomad]

No reason whatsoever ... you carry on as you are

[rojash]

The reason for the "remove hardware" procedure is to ensure that there are no pending writes to the drive (i.e those in the cache), and that no programs are currently tryig to access the drive.

So, unless the documentation tells you that switching off automatically clears the cache (or writes are not cached) then you still need to go through this procedure, regardless of whether you unplug the drive or just switch it off.

[Avocetz]

Thanks for the replies

To be on the same side I shall go through the remove hardware procedure but not physically remove the USB cable but just turn the drive power switch to off.

Thanks Again

Chris

[Avocetz]

Oops typo -- meant safe side

Chris