My computer has an eSATA port, and I've just recently gotten myself a pretty nice external hard drive setup to work with it. I had to do some research because it's not an eSATAp, the kind that allows you to pop in small passport drives that don't need to be plugged into the wall. This one needs to be plugged into the wall. On the plus side I got a nice case that can use 3.5 inch SATA drives because of that, and it supports up to 3 TB (I just got 2 TB though). I figure it's better than those little 2.5 inch ones because I should (in theory) be able to switch it with other internal hard drives in my actual computer.
So yeah. It comes with a power cord and even a power switch. I plug everything in and then I flick it on and my comptuer sees it. Strange thing is... when I leave it plugged in and I start doing other stuff (iTunes and Chrome for example) spontaneous lags starts to happen on my computer. I thought it might be because I got a drive that spins to fast (7200 RPM) but the clerks at the store doesn't think that's likely. He told me it was just a "Quirk of Windows", and that I should just "unplug it when not using it". But I was wondering, can I just flick it off? I know that with most USB peripherals I usually have to do a proper eject. But I don't know about SATA plugs, do I have to eject it every time, and can I?
Also, I wasn't used to keeping my external hard drives plugged into the wall socket and I kinda... let it slip off the side of my desk. It fell about 2 and a half feet high (75 centimeters) onto a pile of wires. I'm quite sure my heart skipped a beat when it fell, but it still runs. In fact (and here's the odd part), since it had it's little crash, it doesn't cause my computer to lag anymore... I have it transfering 60 GB of music from my internal drive out to the external right now and I'm typing this up in Chrome, and... no lag or skips. Even so, I would like to know how to properly eject it if I need to for some reason.
So yeah. It comes with a power cord and even a power switch. I plug everything in and then I flick it on and my comptuer sees it. Strange thing is... when I leave it plugged in and I start doing other stuff (iTunes and Chrome for example) spontaneous lags starts to happen on my computer. I thought it might be because I got a drive that spins to fast (7200 RPM) but the clerks at the store doesn't think that's likely. He told me it was just a "Quirk of Windows", and that I should just "unplug it when not using it". But I was wondering, can I just flick it off? I know that with most USB peripherals I usually have to do a proper eject. But I don't know about SATA plugs, do I have to eject it every time, and can I?
Also, I wasn't used to keeping my external hard drives plugged into the wall socket and I kinda... let it slip off the side of my desk. It fell about 2 and a half feet high (75 centimeters) onto a pile of wires. I'm quite sure my heart skipped a beat when it fell, but it still runs. In fact (and here's the odd part), since it had it's little crash, it doesn't cause my computer to lag anymore... I have it transfering 60 GB of music from my internal drive out to the external right now and I'm typing this up in Chrome, and... no lag or skips. Even so, I would like to know how to properly eject it if I need to for some reason.