Is it safe to eject the external HDD while it is spinning?

[Miso]

I have a problem.
I insert my external HDD to my MacBook pro.
I use it and press eject (in most of the cases it does not eject because it says that something is still using HDD, so almost all the time I have to restart my mac in order to eject it).
But the HDD is still spinning even though it is not mounted. Is it safe to remove the HDD cable from my mac if the HDD is still spinning?
This problem persists with different models of external HDDs. I tried at least 3.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

It isn't the best idea, but shouldn't hurt the data if it is not mounted on the Desktop. I have this issue from time to time on my M1 Mac mini, and I use Disk Utility to completely spin down the external before disconnecting.

Try that and see if that works.

C

 

[TonyAguila]

If you were to shut down the Mac, does the external drive keep on spinning? Even after giving it some time to spin down?

 

[vlherring]

When this has happened to me I quit/restart the Finder and often that does the trick. [I'm on Mojave]

 

[Peter Aretin]

High Sierra 10.13.6 I have a number of external USB drives. When I quit using them and go to put them away by dragging their icons onto the trash, I often get a message that one or more of them can't be put away because something is still using it, which I know is not the case. If I repeat the action, I usually get a prompt asking if I want to force-unmount the drive. If I click yes, after a pause, the drive(s) are unmounted. I'm assuming the System would not do anything to damage the drive or data. I periodically repair their directories with Diskwarrior as routine maint.