[SOLVED] external Harddrive Question

[lilian242ra]

I have 4 tb Western Digital My Passport and I use it for backup
my question is
I know that moving a Hard Drive while is working is Not good for the Drive
but
today i ejected the drive from the task bar right click and click on eject waited 4 Minutes
and then i unplugged it from my PC and then i immediately hold it and move it from my desk

my question at that point the drive was still spinning ?
do I need to wait a couple of minutes next time before move it ?

 

[R_1]

Welcome to the forums.
the issue with mechanical hard drives is not rotation of the spindle but motion of the actuators controlling the heads. the heads float a nary a hairsbreadth above the platter, if they were to touch, well boom goes the dynamite or data as it were. this is known as an HDI Head to Disk Interface and it is usually fatal for the drive experiencing it. it will destroy the heads and significant portions of the platter.
it just sounds scary.
the heads are parked when not in use to prevent this, even though the spindle may be spinning the heads are in no position to cause damage. then how do they HDI? well when the disk is actively writing or reading data and a sharp shock/blow/jolt could cause the HDI during normal operation. in your case the heads were parked for a long time before you did anything.

no need to wait for minutes 10 seconds is plenty, assuming the drive is working it will park the heads when not actively seeking data.

the drive will stay spinning because spinning up takes more time than swinging out an actuator and reading the already spinning platter.