FreshFrost

Being extremely paranoid about backups, I ALWAYS use the "Safely Remove Hardware" function before unplugging my gear. But I also know that if I've already shutdown my computer (or, in this case, laptop), it's safe to just go ahead and unplug my devices.
However, I've recently taken to hibernating instead of shutting down, so I wonder ...

Is it safe to unplug my HDD (which is powered by its own power cord - not the USB drive) from the wall when my machine in hibernation?
Or would it be better to leave the HDD plugged into the wall and just flip the "OFF" switch on it?
Or neither? ...
If I unplug it anyway, what are the consequences?/Best alternative(s)?

(Sorry bout the slight question-overdose ... it's just that I would *love* to be able to unplug that HDD from the wall each night, because I'm trying to do my part to stop global warming, and as you know, unplugging your appliances at night is a start ...)

Snoopdogie187

Well to start, When you Hibernate a computer, it is actually off, all that it oes is save Windows and everything in windows to the hard drive and then restores it all whn you turn it back on so you do not have to wait. It is safe to unplug any usb thing at this point since there is no way the computer can be useing it. What you do have to watch out for is when you turn thecomputer back on. It maybe give some errors if it needed what ever usb device that is not there now.

As for unpluging the power supply, I am not as sure on this, but i always hit the power switch first then unplug it, just to make sure. I hope his answers your question, feel free to always ask more though.

FreshFrost

thank-you for your reply!

true to your advice, i did run into the one little glich that you sort of foresaw:
when restarting the laptop, i now have to keep in mind to turn the HDD on before booting up the laptop, and not the other way round. the first time i tried the whole thing, i switched the laptop on first, and the HDD immediately after, and gave the laptop a LOT of time (<-understatement) to find the HDD. even tried switching the HDD on and off again. then searching for it manually through windows explorer. in the end, i had to restart the laptop so that it could find the HDD.

moral of the story:
when you're done with your laptop = hibernate -> turn off HDD
when you're back at your laptop = turn on HDD -> wake up
how beautifully simple

Snoopdogie187

Your Welcome.
Depending when you turn it on, i think if done during the bios it messes that up some how.
I ran into a poblem before plugging in some usb thing right after tunin it on, and it frooze even before loading windows.