Posted by Todd Caudle on January 14, 2009 at 11:44 PM
Hey all you tech-savvy mo' fo's! Here's one for you. I just bought four 640-gig external HDs. I've got them plugged into the back of a desktop power unit that has on/off switches for each outlet on the front. (It's made to go under a monitor with switches labeled for printer, monitor, etc.) Can I use these switches to turn the HDs on and off, or do I have to reach all the way to the back of these four stacked drives and use their own on/off switches? TIA!
Posted by Jack Garrett on January 15, 2009 at 12:00 AM
you should be able to use your desktop switch..just make sure the drive switches are on.
I agree with Jack. My only concern would be with spikes/surges when you hit the switch(es). Does the 'desktop power unit' have an integrated surge protector?
Arlen
Posted by Lance Warley on January 15, 2009 at 8:29 AM
Yo. Another thing that helps protect the devices - before you turn a switch off, click Safely Remove Hardware and tell the system to remove that drive. It may not be necessary, but I always do it.
Of course, if you use SRH, you won't be able to use that drive again until you reboot or unplug/replug the drive into the port.
btw, this is for Windows. I don't know if Apple has an equivalent function.
Hey, I know what you're thinking, but if you're from the Bronx, you're never paranoid.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on January 15, 2009 at 10:08 AM
As Lance said, be sure to stop the drive before turning it off. On Mac, you eject the drive. This ensures that any data that may be cached and not written to the drive gets flushed and spins down the drive. There is a risk of corrupting data or harming the drive if you power it off while data is being written or the heads are not parked. I've ruined flash drives (thumb drive) with no moving parts by pulling them without waiting for the stop/eject process to finish.
Given that, you probably won't have a problem using the power strip switches, but using the on-drive switches ensures that any controls/logic the manufacturer has tied to the power switch gets employed. For instance, when you flip the switch they may spin the disk down and park the heads or other house keeping. This should be done on any other power loss but its hard to tell.
Posted by John Mumaw on January 15, 2009 at 10:26 AM
You don't need to stop or 'spin down' the drives first before you turn them off with modern hard drives.
See this page from PCGuide for details, in particular the 5th paragraph.
Discussion
5 repliesJack
Arlen
Of course, if you use SRH, you won't be able to use that drive again until you reboot or unplug/replug the drive into the port.
btw, this is for Windows. I don't know if Apple has an equivalent function.
Hey, I know what you're thinking, but if you're from the Bronx, you're never paranoid.
Given that, you probably won't have a problem using the power strip switches, but using the on-drive switches ensures that any controls/logic the manufacturer has tied to the power switch gets employed. For instance, when you flip the switch they may spin the disk down and park the heads or other house keeping. This should be done on any other power loss but its hard to tell.
See this page from PCGuide for details, in particular the 5th paragraph.