Undock with connected USB Hard Drives

[rebop]

Seems to be several opinions on this as I Google, so thought to ask you all here.

Lenovo P51S with Ultradock. Two USB hard drives attached to the dock. Both set for "Quick Removal" in Device Manager.

DO I need to "safely remove" these drives before hot undocking and docking?

Appreciate your thoughts.

[dr_st]

You never actually "need" to "safely remove" any USB devices on modern operating systems. Doing so merely "guarantees" that there will be no data loss, because it will force-flush all pending operations. "Optimize for quick removal", as far as I remember, disable write caching, so the chance of data loss is already diminished.

My rule of thumb with USB devices is to give them 5-10 seconds after any transfers are completed before disconnecting them - this should guarantee that things have settled.

Of course, if you set up you drives for ongoing background backup operations, you don't really know when a transfer is in progress; in this case, I would recommend using the "safe removal".

[rebop]

Thanks. I am finding even a bit stranger. Unless i am missing something, to safely remove when docked you still need to disconnect the USB 3.0 cable and do one at a time. Its not like a direct connection to the computer. If I could "safely remove" without physically detaching cables I would try. For now, I think I have to test an undock and redock without and hope I don't lose any data. Drives are usually idle and I am aware when they are being used.

[rebop]

Did not quite work as hoped.

Undock, no issues. Both drives were idle.

Redocking found only the second drive and Windows said a USB device could not be recognized. I unplugged it, replugged and found and working.

Any idea why that would happen?

[rebop]

Seems the USB Root Controller may have powered down on battery. Changed setting and checking that now. Makes sense if so.

[rebop]

Got it. Loose USB 3.0 port on the docking station. Different port works fine.