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How to Safely Dismount
and Turn Off the
External Hard Drive
What do 'mounting' and 'dismounting' mean? When a device such as
a hard drive is mounted, that means the computer 'sees' the device
and is able to communicate with it. When you dismount a device, the
computer no longer sees it. The device may still be running but the
computer cannot access it, as though the device no longer exists.
Never turn off or unplug a hard drive without dismounting
it first. Doing so could cause data on the drive to be lost
or damaged.
How to safely dismount and turn off the drive
with the computer running
Mac Users
Drag the icon for the External Hard Drive to the Trash. The Drive will
dismount and you can then safely turn if off. You may then unplug the
power cord and data cable if you want to disconnect the drive.
PC Users
1. Locate the System Tray. The System Tray includes the time
display in the bottom right, and icons to the left of the time. One of
the icons will be an icon with a green, diagonal arrow on it.
2. Left-click on this icon.
On Windows 98SE/ME a rectangle will appear with the
name of the Drive followed by the drive letter.
On Windows 2000/XP you will receive the alert message
"Safely Remove..." or "Stop..." followed by the drive letter for
the device.
3. Left-click on the appropriate device (with the drive letter matching
the one used by the External Hard Drive). After a few seconds,
Windows will give you a message that it is safe to remove the device.
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