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Cant 'stop' external USB HDD

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deepakvrao

Senior member
I have an external 300gb USB drive for back up and when I try to 'stop' the device before disconnecting I get this message:

The device 'generic volume' cannot be stopped now. Try stopping this device later

Any problems if I just disconnect while nothing is being written to it? Or should I turn off the comp and then disconnect?
 
Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
Do you have write cache enabled on the drive? If not, I'd just turn it off.
Click to expand...

exactly. and it's off by default.

sometimes if you try using the stop tool again it will stop properly.
 
I have turned it off and it still canr be stopped. I have now resigned to that but is there any risk of just pulling it out when I'm sure that there is no read/write going on?
 
Originally posted by: deepakvrao
I have turned it off and it still canr be stopped. I have now resigned to that but is there any risk of just pulling it out when I'm sure that there is no read/write going on?
Click to expand...

Huh? You turned the drive off, but it can't be stopped? And if write cache is enabled, you can turn the drive off at any time, so long as the activity light isn't on, without risk of losing / corrupting data.
 
Sorry I misunderstood. I turned the write caching off and the drive cannot still be stopped, so I just pull it out when there is no write/read being performed. Thats OK? I cant afford to have this drive crash. It has all my backups.

Thanks for the help
 
Originally posted by: deepakvrao
Sorry I misunderstood. I turned the write caching off and the drive cannot still be stopped, so I just pull it out when there is no write/read being performed. Thats OK? I cant afford to have this drive crash. It has all my backups.

Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean you pulled it out? Can you just turn off the power to the external drive?
 
If there is a light on the drive then if it's not blinking it's not writing. Therefore if it's not blinking, it's ok to remove it.

I usually unplug the USB and then power the drive off. If you just power it off, then it's more likely that something bad will happen. If you unplug the USB first, you know it can't be writing any data.
 
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