I am just curious as to whether there is a safety procedure for turning on my external hard drive.

Sometimes, I shut it down if I am not going to use the drive for a while.

I always use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray before shutting it off.

Also, should I remove the USB port connector after powering off the drive ?

I am curious if there is a similar procedure for turning the drive back on, such as a "Safely Install Hardware" or is it ok to just "plug and play" as I have been doing ?

Thank you.

Hi PeoriaPokerPro...

should I remove the USB port connector after powering off the drive?

No, not required...I leave the USB cables plugged in all the time.

I am curious if there is a similar procedure for turning the drive back on, such as a "Safely Install Hardware" or is it ok to just "plug and play" as I have been doing?

Nope...just keep on doing what your doing... I leave my USB HDD's turned on about 70% of the time. When they are off I just turn on the power switch (I make sure all the enclosures I buy use a power switch) on the back of the drive.

I use a free program to remove my USB devices called USB Disk Ejector...works great.