RE: Re: [OT] External Hard Disk

["Jim" <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Drives should auto-park.

Removal of the power should "free" the heads and allow them to
return to
their parked position, where the arm is held magnetically. This happens in
a
split second after power loss, the drive takes several seconds to spin down
so there (shouldn't be!) any risk to the platen surface.



Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mal Lansell
Sent: 02 September 2007 22:24
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Re: [OT] External Hard Disk

Now that cannot be true (not with modern drives anyway), otherwise there
would be no way to safely turn off the power to an external USB drive.


Jim Noble wrote:

> Mal Lansell wrote:
> > I know about the "safely remove" thing, but I thought
that it's only
> > needed to prevent problems if you pull the plug while writing to
the
> > disk. Since this is to be used as a media source, I should only
ever be
> > reading (unless doing maintenance), in which case a powering off
should
> > be safe.
> >
>
> If you pull the power on a spinning HD, you run the risk the head
> crashing on the platter...
>
> Jim
>
>