how do you properly eject external hard drives?

[l Thomas l]

lets say its external harddrives that you keep in one place. since you dont want to unplug them after safely ejecting them, do you just turn them off before turning off the computer? Right now I'm ejecting them, then turning off the computer, then turning the HDs off.

 

[ch33zw1z]

After the drives are ejected, it doesn't matter what order you power them down. the way you're doing it is fine.

 

[Binky]

Powering down normally should automatically stop the device. You should only need to "eject" the device if you are disconnecting it while the system is running, and you don't have it set for quick disconnect.

I run my (esata) backup HD in quick disconnect mode (no write caching). I never eject it - I just turn it off or pull the esata cable whenever I want. On another system, I run two esata HD's as the only drives, both in write cache mode, and I never disconnect them or treat them any differently than a normal (internal) HD.