Drives do not power off when computer switched off

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

my wd Mybook essential drives do not switch off when I turn off my computer. i have installed the firmware update and turned off the VCD.  I found a reference to ‘power cycle’ but I am not too sure what that means. is it just turning the drive on and off using he on/off switch? Do you do this while connected to the computer?

grateful for any help.

2

How are you turning off your computer? Do you use the front power button, or do you turn it off at the AC main?

Some computers will supply +5VSB standby power to the USB ports in the standby state, while others will power down the USB ports. Check your BIOS setup for related power management settings.

3

Thanks for your reply.

The computer, an imac intel core2duo, is always switched off by using shut down command. BIOS settings are not a part of the mac user framework.

When the computer shuts down and the wd doesn’t we tried to turn it off with the on/off switch at the back of the wd drive. When that didn’t work it was switched off at the power point. It is connected to the computer using a logitec 4 port powered hub.

4

I suspect that your powered hub is supplying 5v to USB port of the WD drive, so the drive will not shut down.

It is considered safer to connect the WD Drvie directly to a USB port on the Mac, as Hubs could potentially introduce corruption when devices are plugged / unplugged (though it is rare of course, but a risk all the same.)

My personal recommendation would be to plug the WD drive directly to your Mac.

Regards,

5

Thanks. I will investigate that line of enquiry.