Does/Should removable, internal hard drive spin down when ejected?

Several hard drives in internal bays in the case. TWO that go in external bays. One came with the computer's case, and it's a simple push on/pull off. The other is a caddyless carrier in the front panel that pulls the drive out when it's released. Both WORK fine, disks get found when one is plugged in and all that.

BUT, after doing the backup or whatever, I "eject" whichever drive I was using, then remove it from the drive bay. It FEELS like the drives continue to spin even after ejecting them, which means they're getting the physical shock of me pulling them loose from the plug and pulling them out of the bay.

Is this a legitimate concern? And if so, is there something I should be doing when I eject one of these drives so it WILL spin down?

I used to have several of those bays for hot plug able SATA drives. If my memory is correct, once you eject it, it will reply that its ready to be removed. Soon as the power is turned off, the heads retract to their parking position and then it tells you that you can "Safely remove it". I never had any problems as long as I waited for the remove message. But that was in W7. W10 maybe different. Maybe somebody that has a similar config will chime in. Lots of members here.

You may be right, but so far, on the drive bay WITHOUT the "door", even after I eject the drive, I have to grabe the drive and physically remove it from the plug. I can feel it vibrating, and if I pull it right away the drive resists movement with that "spinning platter - gyroscope" feeling... So far, even letting it sit 10 or 20 seconds it STILL feels like it's spinning.

BUT, I'd be happy to be wrong if somebody is sure it's spinning down.

Yeah, that's what I'm feeling. I tried it and waited 60 seconds to see if it would spin down. STILL feels like it's spinning. Does Windows 10 NOT power down the HDD when the drive is ejected?

And if it doesn't, how do you swap these things safely - WITHOUT having to shut down the computer?

I've noticed something similar to this with a laptop and portable USB3 drive. Even when I click 'safely remove' and get confirmation that it is safe to disconnect, the drive still seems active. It isn't just spinning, its doing something else as well as you can feel it vibrating significantly. It is like you were reading/writing files constantly. The LED status indicator is flashing as well (as if in use).

What I have found is that this 'problem' seems drive specific. Others don't do it and behave as expected with the drive powering down when requested to be removed. This particular drive was one I constructed from a spare 2.5" laptop drive and a USB3 caddy.

I don't have that feeling after I Safely Remove, I hit the power switch on the External Drive, unplug the USB cable, unplug the power supply and put the entire unit on a shelf. Maybe its the type of Drive/Manufacture ? I only have WD Black drives both 3.5" and 2.5". All are USB 3.0 and some also have a ESATA connector.

I think everyone will agree that if you hit the power switch on the External Drive, it'll probably stop spinning.

That's not what we're dealing with. It's a bare 3.5" HDD that plugs into an external bay on the desktop computer. I have 2 bays - 1 is built into the case, and the drive pushes in. The other is a Startec caddyless carrier that has a door you open and close the pushes the drive onto the plug and pulls it off.

Not an external drive, not a USB drive, these are drives plugged into the computer's backplane with a standard SATA cable.

My question is WHAT happens between when I do a "safely remove" and when I actually grab the drive and pull it off the plug. Is it, or is it NOT still spinning.