Tim:
Are there any consumer hard drives that still do a controlled park, rather than just get switched off?
Sam Varshavchik:
On my laptop with a ~4 year old hard drive, there's quite an audible difference between a forcible power-off, with a clunk, and an orderly shutdown that turns the power off quietly.
Hmm, I'll have to have a listen out for what my laptop does. I can well imagine laptops having an emergency shutoff, seeing as some of them use motion detectors to protect drives against bangs.
But my external drives seem to make the same loudish bang when they put themselves to sleep, compared to losing power. To be honest, I think external drives need motion detection. All too often people move them about while they're running. And the ones that sit upright aren't the most stable of things.