Safe to turn off HDD when laptop is in hibernation?

[FreshFrost]

Being extremely paranoid about backups, I ALWAYS use the "Safely Remove Hardware" function before unplugging my gear. But I also know that if I've already shutdown my computer (or, in this case, laptop), it's safe to just go ahead and unplug my devices.
However, I've recently taken to hibernating instead of shutting down, so I wonder ...

Is it safe to unplug my HDD (which is powered by its own power cord - not the USB drive) from the wall when my machine in hibernation?
Or would it be better to leave the HDD plugged into the wall and just flip the "OFF" switch on it?
Or neither? ...
If I unplug it anyway, what are the consequences?/Best alternative(s)?

(Sorry bout the slight question-overdose ... it's just that I would *love* to be able to unplug that HDD from the wall each night, because I'm trying to do my part to stop global warming, and as you know, unplugging your appliances at night is a start ...)

 

[lhuser]

Hmm, good question. But basically, if we use common sense, the HDD will not have to deal with transferring, so it legaly safe to remove, but on the other hand, NTFS will be marked as "In Use", so you can't mount them on Linux OSes unless you techinally do the Safe Remove Hardware way.

If you don't have any Linux OSes, like I'm expecting now, then both are the same. Although, it's be more useful to turn it off from the switch rather from unplugging the plug.

 

[FreshFrost]

thank-you for your reply!
as i'm not using linux but win xp, i assumed that the last bit of your post was applicable to me and tried without any problems.

just thought i'd let you know about the one little glich that i did run into during the process:
when restarting the laptop, i now have to keep in mind to turn the HDD on before booting up the laptop, and not the other way round. the first time i tried the whole thing, i switched the laptop on first, and the HDD immediately after, and gave the laptop a LOT of time (<-understatement) to find the HDD. even tried switching the HDD on and off again. then searching for it manually through windows explorer. in the end, i had to restart the laptop so that it could find the HDD.

moral of the story:
when you're done with your laptop = hibernate -> turn off HDD
when you're back at your laptop = turn on HDD -> wake up
how beautifully simple