Why doesn't MSAHCI.SYS spin-down SATA drives, when it says "Safe to Remove"?

[VirtualLarry]

I worry that I am causing damage to my SATA HDs.

I have a Rosewill Blackhawk case, and it has a SATA HD dock at the top of the case. It is wired to some of the higher ICH9R ports on my P35 motherboard. I installed Windows 7 64-bit with AHCI enabled. HDs installed to that port, show up on the "Safe to Remove" list.

When I choose to remove it, it says "Safe to Remove", but then when I physically unplug it, I can feel it spinning, and hear it spindown once I unplug it. That doesn't seem safe to remove to me. I'm afraid if I don't do it carefully, and it requires a bit of a tug to unplug, that it will cause a head crash.

 

[theevilsharpie]

It takes more than "a bit of a tug" to damage a hard drive, even one that's running.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I always thought that moving a HD that was spinning, was a very bad idea. No?

 

[theevilsharpie]

I always thought that moving a HD that was spinning, was a very bad idea. No?

Hard drives are fragile, but not THAT fragile 😛

You can move them while they're spinning. Just don't drop them or violently shake them.

 

[exdeath]

drop them or violently shake them.

That's all I WANT to do when using HDDs, they are so damn prehistoric and slow :biggrin:

 

[Old Hippie]

AFAIK Safe to Remove just meant it wasn't electronically connected to the host machine.

Some prebuilt externals have proprietary spin-downs but Windows has nothing to do with that.

 

[Coup27]

AFAIK Safe to Remove just meant it wasn't electronically connected to the host machine.

Some prebuilt externals have proprietary spin-downs but Windows has nothing to do with that.

Or on/off buttons 😛

 

[razel]

I always thought that moving a HD that was spinning, was a very bad idea. No?

Yes, moving a spinning desktop drive should be a gentle process and should be avoided in general. Laptop drives are ok with it. However, violently moving any spinning HDD is never good.

I do agree that some of those open enclosures should have an on/off button. Then you can hit that button to let it spin down before removing. What some of our techs do here is pull the back power plug off the enclosure.

 

[bryanW1995]

That's all I WANT to do when using HDDs, they are so damn prehistoric and slow :biggrin:

That would make a great command: "It is now safe for you to shake the **** out of your hd and smash it with hammer". 🙂

 

[tommylommykins]

On that note, do hard drives typically state a maximum safe rotational velocity? I've seen maximum G-load requirements, but I don't think I've ever seen a limitation on rotation?

Presumably this means you're entitled to ask for your money back when you put your desktop through a spin cycle in the washing machine and the harddisks die?

 

[Elixer]

AFAIK Safe to Remove just meant it wasn't electronically connected to the host machine.

Some prebuilt externals have proprietary spin-downs but Windows has nothing to do with that.

'Safely Remove device' means to do a flush of cache, and get the STOP/SPINDOWN command. The question is, if the controller will obey those commands or not, and the cheap ones don't.

 

[Puppies04]

I always thought that moving a HD that was spinning, was a very bad idea. No?

Ever used a laptop in a car or on a plane or even put one on your lap? Then you have moved a HDD that is spinning. Did it break?