Windows 7: WD Mybook Essential Basic Troubleshooting Question

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Re: 1) "Safely Remove Hardware" assures you that nothing is being written to the drive and it is safe to remove the drive without losing or corrupting data. It does not power off the drive however.
The drive is powered through the USB cable. If you unplug the USB cable after getting the "Safe To Remove" message then the drive will power down.

RE: 2) I never install the software on these external drives. There is no need of it as far as I can tell. Windows can do everything you need. Keep in mind that "I never install this software", so if there is anything of benefit in there, I would not know.
If there is a Disk Imaging program, or a Hard Drive Diagnostics program on the drive I might safe those program installer files in a folder somewhere so I could install them later if necessary.

RE:3) Yes. Provided the "Safe To Remove" message has been displayed.

RE: 4) This I do not know. My external drives do not have power buttons.
This behavior could be by design (to prevent accidental disconnection, or something else.) Does it delay if the "Safe to Remove" has been displayed?

Not sure about dotnetframework35. I sounds similar to Microsoft program installer package " .NET Framework 3.5 " , which should be on your computer already through Windows Update.
I think you could safely delete that folder without any consequence.

dear tveblen, rep sent thank you very much for your reply...

so um.. id like to review if you dont mind,

so... the correct way to remove external HDD is safely remove hardware => and only then do i power off the external hdd via the power button => unplug the cable

i have a follow-up question then... when the external HDD is still plugged to the PC, is it safe or unsafe to just turn off the power button directly without "safely remove hardware" first?

Yes that is the "correct" way to remove an external hard drive.

As for your second question the answer is yes, it is "safe" to do so. That is because doing so will not damage the hard drive or the PC. But there can sometimes be some minor, annoying problems that could occur when you don't do it the "correct" way:

• If files have not completed writing, you can lose data (corrupted file).
• Deleted files will not show up in Recycle Bin but will continue to take up space.
• Windows could lose recognition of the drive, or the file system.
• The drive will not turn off, waiting for a Windows process to complete.

These things do not always happen, but when they do they can be an annoying chore to fix or deal with.