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Why Are Ejected Drives Still Running on My Mac?

Hello! I have two hard drives and they cannot be ejected frequently. Every time I eject them they reconnect immediately, but I won't see then showing up. I hate to just unplug because that might hurt the drives. Thank you!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Vain Rowe

Vain Rowe

Answered on Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Actually, when you eject a drive, it stops running and your Mac computer immediately unmounts it, so there is no drive icon on your desktop. The spinning is caused by the USB port still delivering power to your drives, allowing them to be enabled as soon as possible when needed.

If you don't like the power delivery after ejection, complain to the tech support of the external hard drive and they might have some solutions to rule out this case.

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