Is it safe to plug an external hard drive while the computer is running?

[Pooya f]

It may seem absurde, but when I bought my WD Elements 1TB external hard drive, I was told that external hard drives only have to be plugged before turning the computer on... and I doubt whether this is true or not... .

 

[Rocky Bennett]

It is probably safest to shut off your system before plugging in or unplugging any external hard drive but after over 20 years of just plugging them in and out all the time I have ran into zero problems.

The call is yours.

 

[bailojustin]

It is safe to plug an external hard drive in via USB at any time, Its setup as plug and play. you are fine.

The only time you would not be is in the case of plugging it directly into the sata, Essentially hard wiring it into the computer.

In order to accomplish this without any problems, you would have to ensure you have 'SATA HOT-PLUG" enabled, this allows you to hot swap hard drives and storage.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Pooya f,

Well, I think it should be fine to plug an external drive in a running computer, as the other guys have already said.
Just make sure you don't unplug an external drive, especially if it is running. Use the safely eject function. Otherwise, the drive may lose it's partitions, which could result in data loss.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Pooya f]

Thank you all!

 

[Gopi_9]

100% SAFE DONT WORRY ITS plug AND Play

 

[CountMike]

Some times it's plug and PRAY.