[Cialug] external hdd, laptop, clean unmounts

[David Champion]

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