how do you use your external HDD?

[Skalaberg]

i was wondering how people with external HHD use them.....obviously it will be mainly for backup but do you have them 'on' all the time or just switch them on when you want to run a backup.

do you use the 'safely remove hardware' option when you switch them off?

do you just leave them powered on all the time regardless of wether the pc is switched on?

just wondering.

Skal.

 

[badbob]

I use them to transfer data prior to burning (3.5" drive is faster than the laptop drive) I would get buffer under-run whilst burning at 4x DVD-R and using the laptop drive with the files on the laptop drive.

No I don't leave it on (fan is grindy and generally too loud) switch them on when I need it- also have a DVD RW in another enclouse, use firewire linking feature. I usually use "remove hardware" but sometimes windows doesn't allow it...so I just pull the firewire cable out once it's at idle No data loss or corruption.

 

[CurlyWhirly]

I have an external 80 Gb USB 2.0 hard drive which I use for backups only.
I unplug it when I've finished and I do use the 'safely remove hardware' option as I would think it risky just unplugging it from the hard drive after it has been in use!

I think it has something to do with the fact that the hard drive may still have some data in the disk cache (which hasn't yet been written to the hard drive) and by unplugging it this way, this data could get lost