External harddrive issue

[hdansjr]

My external hard drive that I use for backups is giving me a problem. It's a Western Digital hard drive that is connected by USB 1. Whenever I back-up my files, I have trouble shutting the external hard drive down. I will go to the "safely remove hardware" icon and click remove the "i" drive which is the external hard drive. I then get a message saying that it is unresponsive at this time and cannot be removed. If i click continue or cancel, nothing happens, and I can just go through that process it seems like for ever. If i just try to power down the hard drive, then the light will blink on and off until i actually remove the power supply. Any idea what might be the issue? I have uninstalled the software and it's still is an issue. DO I do any damage when I just unplug the hard drive?

 

[cwiz]

that happens w/ my jump drives sometimes. i usually just shut down the comp and pull it out

 

[hdansjr]

so just shutting the computer down will allow me to cut off the HD? LIke i stated, if i try to shut it down without safely removing the hardware, the power light just blinks on and off. If i can just shut the computer down and then power it off, i'll do that if there's no chance of any problems.

 

[M4A1]

That's prob your best choice. Never heard of that problem before.