Hello, new community member here. I have a question regarding a WD Elements 2621 3TB drive I just got:
When I finish using the drive, I eject it from my computer using the “Safely Remove Hardware…” option in Windows. When I do that, the removable media icon disappears from the Windows system tray, which (at least in theory) should indicate that it’s safe for me to unplug the USB cable connecting the WD drive to my PC. However, even if the removable media icon disappears, I’ve noticed the LED on my WD Elements does not completely turn off - it still keeps blinking very slowly (it turns on and stays on for 2 seconds, then it turns off and remains off for 2 seconds, then it turns on for another 2 seconds and so on - it’s different from the fast blinking that happens when Windows tries to read from or write to the drive). But when I put my hand on the drive itself, I don’t feel the disks spinning or anything, I believe it’s in some sort of idle state or something. What’s interesting is that this “slow blinking” happens even when the PC itself is completely turned off.
My question is, after I have ejected the WD drive in Windows, is it really 100% safe for me to unplug the USB cable of the drive from the computer? Shouldn’t the LED light completely turn off after ejecting instead of slowly blinking? Or is this the way WD Elements portable drives are designed to work and it’s “a feature and not a bug”? I’ve been looking everywhere for a user guide or at least some information on this, but I couldn’t find anything related to my question. Hopefully I’ll be able to find an answer here.
Thank you in advance,
Miles V.
