[Cialug] external hdd, laptop, clean unmounts

[Dave J. Hala Jr.]

On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 17:00 -0600, David Champion wrote:
I've been using the usb wd mybooks lately with a lot of success.  I just
bought a 500gb from staples for $129.00



> Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> > I now have a USB hard drive for doing backups and storing less frequently
> > used data. It needs to be plugged into the wall and for various reasons I
> > don't want to carry it around with me whenever I want to work in another
> > room/building.
> >
> > Right now, my USB hub has my keyboard, mouse and laser printer plugged into
> > it. The beauty is that none of those things complain if I just unplug the
> > cord and walk away. I'd like to plug my hdd into the hub as well.
> >
> > However, the hdd is not happy if I yank the cord and walk away. I get the
> > nasty "Unsafe device removal" warning box and if I do it too many times,
> > presumably I'll lose data too. I tend to move around a lot. Presumably I'll
> > move around far more frequently than I'll use the ext hdd.
> >
> > Anyone know a way to set things up so that I can just unhook without a
> > second thought?
> >
> >  * Goal 1: Not loose data, assuming the light on the front of the drive has
> > stopped blinking before I unplug
> >  * Goal 2 (optional): Not get the "unsafe device removal" warning
> >   
> 
> Check out this thread:
> 
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=451344
> 
> A ways down someone named clem-vangelis posts this script.
> 
> (quote)
> #!/bin/bash
> WD=/dev/sdb1
> sudo umount $WD
> if [ $? -eq 0 ]
> then
> echo Stopping heads
> sdparm --command=stop $WD
> else
> echo Unmount Failed !
> fi
> 
> just replace /dev/sdb1 by your WD passport name and then your WD will 
> shutdown silently ( like in windows
> (end quote)
> 
> I got one of the little WD Passport drives last week at a Best Buy in 
> the D.C. area while I was there on a trip. 250gb for $140. So far it's 
> been working really well. I try to remember to umount it when I'm done, 
> but have occasionally just pulled the plug.
> 
> -dc
> 
> 
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