Windows 10: External hard drive ejected but still spinning and moving heads

I've got a 3.5" drive in a caddy that I use for backups. Up until a couple of weeks ago I could eject it in Windows and it would almost immediately spin down. Now, however, it's started behaving oddly.

When I eject it, after Windows has confirmed it's OK to turn it off, the drive is still spinning but also I can hear and feel the vibrations of the heads moving, almost as if the drive is still being written to or read from. This can continue for several minutes, during which the drive is definitely not visible to Windows, either as a mounted partition or even as a physical drive in Drive Management.

I don't think that this is a matter of the drive finishing any write operations that may have been in progress: I've tested it by powering it on and then ejecting it as soon as Windows allows, without me starting any write operations, and since the drive isn't used for any system functions, I don't think Windows would have started anything either. I've done a ScanDisk on the drive and CrystalDiskInfo doesn't show any SMART errors, so I'm assuming/hoping that the drive isn't faulty. I thought that perhaps some recent update to Windows (I'm on 1903, build 18362.239) might have caused a change in behaviour, but I wouldn't have thought that Windows would have any effect on the drive's behaviour after it was ejected.

The drive's a WD Green 2TB from 2013 which had previously been a main drive in my desktop and was subsequently repurposed. The caddy's an Icy Box one that I've had for about four years. A similar WD Green drive from 2015 doesn't appear to behave the same way in the same enclosure.

Should I consider this drive suspect and dispose of it? Is it safe to power it down while it's still moving the heads if I've ejected it from Windows first?

Thanks in advance.

:)

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

Can't eject external hard drive

Every time that I try and eject my Samsung external hard drive, I get a message pop up saying to close any programs using it. I also can't eject using drive tools in File Explorer. I have checked and there is nothing running. I can also eject the hard
drive in other computers, after using it for basically exactly the same use.

 

Can't eject external hard drive

Hi Emily,

To address the issue you're experiencing with ejecting your external hard drive, you can refer to
Ajay K's answer found on this
link.

Let us know the result.

Regards.