Quick question about external hard drives

I’ve been using a 1 TB WD My Passport for about 9 or 10 months now, strictly via USB.

Does it actually matter if I leave this hard drive plugged into the USB port when my computer is powered down? Is there any harm in just leaving it connected constantly? I'm asking because there isn't a physical power switch on the drive to turn it off while it stays plugged in. That little LED light is always blinking—sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes just steady—which I assume is just its way of showing what it's doing...

Unless you’re using the drive every single day, I'd say it’s probably best to just unplug it. It might help minimize any potential damage if there happens to be a power surge.

The drive itself will likely be fine—it’s more probable that the electronics will take the hit, maybe the power adapter, the USB interface, or the internal circuitry of the drive.

Is it actually okay to just yank it out of the USB port every time? I mean, am I going to end up frying something by doing that?

Sure. It can't hurt. If the computer is powered down, the connection drops and everything just disconnects.

Unless there's some kind of daily automatic backup running—in which case you might have to remember to reconnect it.

I don't think there's any kind of automated backup in place. 🤔

At least not according to Task Scheduler. 🤷

Then everything's a 5.