How do you turn off an eSATA Hard Drive?

[Gorrillasnot]

I put a 1TB WD hard drive in an external eSATA enclosure and was wondering should I leave it powered on all the time or should I shut it off when not in use?
Also was wondering what's the best method for turning off an eSATA hard drive while the computer is on?
There is no "safe to remove hardware" icon in the task bar like when using USB devices so this has me confused on how to turn off an eSATA drive without fear of corrupting my data.

thanks

 

[Hardlin]

The drive should be hot pluggable assuming your SATA interface is in AHCI mode. The issue beyond that would be if something is trying to access the drive when you disconnect/turn off the drive.

 

[imported_wired247]

I just make sure there is no data transfer going on, then switch it off.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

How can I tell if my SATA is in AHCI mode?
To air on the side of caution would it be safe to log off of windows, shut down the drive, and then log back in?

thanks

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: phatTweaker
How can I tell if my SATA is in AHCI mode?
To air on the side of caution would it be safe to log off of windows, shut down the drive, and then log back in? thanks

That would be overkill. eSATA drives are hot-pluggable. As long as the drive avtivity LED is not flashing, you can simply turn it off or on as you need it. I have several such externals and do that all the time.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

awesome...thanks for the info

 

[Gorrillasnot]

I've tried turning the drive off with the PC on, but after turning it back on it doesn't show up in windows without a reboot. Am I doing something wrong or is there a setting somewhere to adjust?

thanks

 

[mooseracing]

Use HotSwap!.exe to safely remove it when there is nothing in the taskbar like a USB drive.

 

[techmanc]

My self I was reading this thread as I have 2 Antec MX-1 units I use and I have tired all the methods listed but I decided I would treat these drives as normal drives e.g. turn them on before I start computer and shut them off after computer is off or during a restart only. Not the most convenient way but but I think the safest.

 

[techmanc]

Originally posted by: mooseracing
Use HotSwap!.exe to safely remove it when there is nothing in the taskbar like a USB drive.

I used Hotswap and it seems to work well but I still get "Device cannot be swapped because a program is accessing it" I made sure indexing the drive is off - not using compression - checked drive with unlocker and it doesnt show any files trying to access the hard drive. What I can I do to fix the problem?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: phatTweaker
I've tried turning the drive off with the PC on, but after turning it back on it doesn't show up in windows without a reboot. Am I doing something wrong or is there a setting somewhere to adjust?

Then your hardware or drivers aren't supporting hot-swap. That's the #1 symptom.

In the past, I've simply purchased $20 PCI (or PCI-E) SATA cards with Silicon Image 3112 or 3132 chipsets. Those DO provide hotswap capability. But every one I've used won't show the SATA drive as removable. I and my clients make sure that the drive isn't transfering data and just unplug it. But mine are all used for running backups at a fixed time (late at night) and run a "Verify" step after all the backups are written, so it's pretty safe to assume they won't be writing at other times of the day.

I haven't messed with the built-in eSATA ports on any of my motherboards.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

My motherboard (in sig) doesn't have on board eSATA, but my enclosure came with a SATA bracket that attaches to one of my internal SATA connectors on my motherboard. I don't know if that would make any difference then using a dedicated eSATA port.
Also I found that if I go to Device Manager and right click on Disc drives and scan for hardware changes then my external drive reappears.
Do you think it would be ok to turn the drive on with my PC and turn it off at night like I do my PC or would that be too much wear on a external drive?

thanks

 

[techmanc]

I have no problem turning on mine with my rig seen at rig link.I tried with a controller and using motherboard with SATA bracket. Only problem I had was using a Silicon Image 3132 clone controller. It wasnt recognized by my nvidia 680i chipset so I use a JMicron JMB36X SATA Controller.

 

[Drewdru]

i have an eternal HD too but I use USB connection. Is it still safe to just turn it off or should i use the "safely remove hardware" way?