I have a WD 2TB Mypassport drive and for some reason after I shut down my desktop it still has power to it and the light blinks. I want to completely shut off everything when I shut down my PC. I checked all of the power setting and nothing seems to work.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Does your power supply of your computer have a switch? If yes, try to turn off the switch and see if your external hard drive is still powered.
Generally for desktop PCs USB power is maintained when the system is off so that you can turn it back on with a USB mouse/keyboard.
What motherboard do you have? Usually there is a BIOS/UEFI setting that controls USB power.
The WDC MyPassport [I have 2] is powered by the USB cable as well as data transfer, the USB ports on the motherboard in the computer probably still provide power even when the computer is apparently off. However some ports can continue to provide charging power, especially newer machines. Only solution for Desktops would be to unplug the power cord or turn off the surge protector. Notebooks aren't so easy to do it with, have to physically remove the battery.
An historical note: the older AT-style motherboards of the '80s, '90s and very early 2000s had the power switch directly connected to the power supply. The ATX-style motherboards have the switch connected to the board itself and activating that switch merely tells the motherboard to get things started that need the power supply. Usually the 'always on' can be noted by noting the light on the Ethernet socket on the back of the computer for the NIC/Network Interface Card/Adapter and the motherboard itself may have a small light somewhere on it.
I also have a WD 2TB My Passport. If the "USB Standby Power at S4/S5" setting in the BIOS is enabled the external HD's light will continue to blink after a shutdown.
Ok thanks for the help. My last motherboard shut everything down when I clicked the shutdown command in Windows. However, that MB was about 9 years old.
I have the Z370 and changed it from BIOS to OS in the setting. Therefore, all of the power stuff should run through Win 10. My old MB was 9 years old and when I shut it down, my 2TB external drive completely shut off.
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