How to Turn Off Hard Drives

It takes seconds to turn off a hard drive.

Hard drives are necessary for any computer to store its programs and information in a secure location so that information can be recalled on command. All computers have a hard drive built into them. Many people use additional external hard drives to back up data and to expand a computer's memory capacity. Turning off these hard drives is intended to be as simple as possible so the drive can power down without damaging itself or losing any data.

Instructions

1. Move your mouse down to the system tray in the lower right corner of your screen, and locate the "Safe Remove" icon, which usually looks like a USB cable tip with a green check mark on it. Double-click the icon.

2. From the pop-up menu, select any external drives that you wish to shut down. Click "Stop" and then "OK."

3. Once the device has been stopped, unplug the USB cable for the drive from the main computer.

4. Click on the "Start" menu, and select "Turn Off Computer." Click "Turn Off" in the second window that pops up. This confirms shutdown.

5. Wait for the computer to close all of its programs. Then it will shut the main hard drive down.

References

• Seagate: How to Safely Disconnect an External Drive from Your Windows Computer
• The Elder Geek: Turn Off Windows