USB External Hard Drive Spin Down on Disconnect

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by shinigami7th, Aug 12, 2009.

  1. shinigami7th

    shinigami7th MDL Novice

    Sep 7, 2008
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    Vista has this problem where if you safely remove a USB device, it will power down the port and let the device slowly powers down. WinXP does it just right, but until now, there is no fix for vista... How about Win7?

    Still postponing Win7 install 'till the drivers for my laptop are final tho....
     
  2. PrEzi

    PrEzi MDL Addicted

    Aug 23, 2007
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    What do you mean by 'does it just right' ?
    When you safely remove a USB device in Win7 it closes all the opened handlers to this device, but does not power off the usb port (at least mine Win7 with updated all the chipset drivers doesn't power off my portable USB HDD).
     
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  3. shinigami7th

    shinigami7th MDL Novice

    Sep 7, 2008
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    What I mean is that when you safely remove a device in WinXP, the device is properly powered down, so devices such as external HDD is properly spinned down before you can unplug it. Vista does not do that, so when you disconnect the HDD, it will sound like an abrupt stop (which I'm sure won't be good for the longevity of the drive). You can try it with XP....

    Well, that means Win7 still does not fix the problem.... Kinda disappointing... This problem has been in the technet forum discussion as well as in M$ knowledge base since 2007...
     
  4. PrEzi

    PrEzi MDL Addicted

    Aug 23, 2007
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    #4 PrEzi, Aug 12, 2009
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2009
    I don't think that this is a serious issue.
    HDDs have an auto-parking position introduced since several years now.
    It was an issue with some early adopters.
    Besides - In my opinion - safely remove doesn't mean - safely close handlers and power off the usb port... For example - What if I do not wish the USB ports to be powered down, just want all the transfer be closed/finished and cache cleaned ?

    It also may be changeable in Vista/Win7 in the power options - must verify when I come back home.
     
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  5. shinigami7th

    shinigami7th MDL Novice

    Sep 7, 2008
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  6. Kosta-Darjania

    Kosta-Darjania MDL Novice

    Apr 25, 2010
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    after doing 'safely remove hardware' enter 'sleep' mode (start > shutdown menu > sleep ) and usb hdd will spin down. it is a lot faster method than shutting down pc.
     
  7. Stannieman

    Stannieman MDL Guru

    Sep 4, 2009
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    Are you shure that's not a power saving feature of your drive? Cause I have small speakers for mp3 or whatever and they are powered by usb. Only gnd and +5 are connected and no data lines, so the pc doesn't know something is connected to that port. When using such devices it would be unacceptable if the power on all disabled ports is cut off, so it sounds logical to me there is at least a way to always enable power. But actually I don't see any reason why the power on unused ports should even be cut off anyway.
     
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