Hi. I’ve just unboxed my new My Passport 2TB external HDD. It’s awesome. I just have one question:
can I use the option from Windows (8.1) to safely remove the device? I’ve tried both the Windows option and from the WD Quick View icon. I’ve noticed just one difference:
If I remove it using the Windows option the device is removed but the LED is flashing slow (Slow flashing, approximately every 2.5 seconds → System standby) but if I use the WD App option the LED goes off.
I’m asking this because I’ll be connecting this device in many computers and cannot install software on them.
Seriously, are there still people who use “safely remove hard drive”? LOL, I haven’t used that since XP.
You don’t need to “safely remove hard drive” anymore in Windows. It’s completely fine to just pull the plug.
And if you don’t believe me, go into device manager > Disk Drives > find your USB drive > right click > properties > policies.
Now read what it says there. Most likely your drive policy is set to the default, that being “quick removal”, which as explained right there in the dialog box means you can pull the plug. This is for Windows 7 anyway, I assume it’s similar in Windows 8.
Since the original poster said he will be using the drive on mutiple PCs It’s best to use the remove safely on Windows. A lot of posters here simply pulled the plug and wind up with a corrupt drive.
