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I often have external HDD's connected to my laptop, and often I turn off the PC without disconnecting them. However, since the USB interfaces are powered even when the laptop is turned off, usually the HDD will continue to spin (or restart spinning) and will power down only after 10-15 minutes.

Can I safely disconnect the HDD from the (turned off) laptop, while it is spinning, or do I risk to damage the device?

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  • If the disc is spinning make sure just to unplug the cable without moving/touching the HDD itself.
    – Robert
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 11:06
  • When windows shuts down it automatically safely removes the drive, it is safe to disconnect the drive once windows shuts down.
    – Moab
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 14:14

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So long as you "eject" the drive (so that no files are being written) and everything is closed, so normal "eject", then yes, you can unplug the drive.

I have done that frequently and never harmed a drive.

Modern hard drives (last five years or so) will park the heads when powered off.

Finally, it is unlikely all your USB ports remained powered when the computer is off. Usually just one port is powered. Use a non-powered USB port for the drive and then the problem is eliminated.

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    A normal OS shutdown will automatically also be an EJECT. But if the OS crashed you can't be certain. Doesn't matter though. If it crashed and there were pending writes those would be lost anyway. After a crash it is always best to check the external media for filesystem errors. (Internal disks usually get this automatically, but external media often not.)
    – Tonny
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 11:51
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    You can also use a non-powered when off port.
    – anon
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 12:38
  • I can't really "eject" the drive, for that I'd need to turn the PC back on. But if I read you between the lines, are you saying that even if the drive is spinning, the heads will be parked since there's no access from the OS to the drive?
    – 1NN
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 13:22
  • Unfortunately I have only one USB-A port on my laptop. But for sure I can check if I can somehow turn off the charging / power from battery through the Bios
    – 1NN
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 13:23
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    There is a setting in my BIOS to turn that feature off. So you can try that. If you have already turned off the computer (so "eject" is not available) then just carefully disconnect. The drive will be fine.
    – anon
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 13:38

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