how to safe remove usb drive in command?

shibir · 12-19-2012, 03:22 AM

hi
i've installed CentOS6.3 as text mode in my system. & i've attached an USB HDD? even though i unmounted the HDD still the motor rotates & the LED glows. means it is unsafe to remove. can anyone tell me how can i safely remove the drive?

thanks

rylan76 · 12-19-2012, 03:27 AM

If you've unmounted the drive you should be able to simply pull the USB cable out. It will lose power thusly, wait for it to spin down and then you should be able to safely move it.

If it is a drive with an external powersupply, simply unmount it, switch it off (if possible) and then it should be safe to move. If its powersupply has a switch, unmount it, then switch it off.

I've done the first numerous times with external USB HDDs to no ill effects.

shibir · 12-19-2012, 03:58 AM

you mean is the HDD auto-park. so that we can pull out the cable even though it spins? or after unmounting it parks automatically.

thanks

TobiSGD · 12-19-2012, 06:52 AM

All modern disks are parking the heads automatically.
But you can set the disk to the lowest power-saving mode, which usually also spins down the disks with

Code:

hdparm -Y /dev/sdX

replacing X with the disks identifier.