What should I do with an external hard drive?¶

Preserve an external drive's power and connection state before deciding whether to disconnect it. It may be ordinary storage, but it may also support a live application, backup, encrypted volume or multi-disk system.

Establish what the drive is doing¶

Record its make, model, serial number, stated capacity, labels and physical condition. Photograph its position, power supply, activity lights, data cables, port, connected host and nearby equipment. On the host, capture any visible drive name, transfer, backup process, application or warning without navigating unnecessarily.

Disconnecting during a write may corrupt data or interrupt a database or service. The host may also update its own logs and mounted-volume state when a cable is removed. If the drive is already unpowered, do not attach it elsewhere simply to see whether it works.

Preserve hardware relationships¶

Keep associated power supplies, unusual cables and adapters identifiable. Some external units contain hardware encryption, more than one disk, proprietary controllers or network functions; dismantling an enclosure or swapping components can make the data harder to recover and obscure the original configuration.

Seek specialist help where the drive is active, encrypted, damaged or unusually configured. Record the reason, authority and time for any disconnection, then maintain continuity for the drive and its associated components without assuming proximity establishes ownership.