Shutting down external HD

A friend and I were having this discussion so I want expert help.
When I shut down my computer, which is rare as I just sleep it unless we're going away, I always turn off the external HD in Time Machine preferences and then shut it down. My friend shuts her computer down every night but does not do anything to the external HD. She's recently had trouble loosing her contact list. My question is: Would that have caused her to loose her contacts by not turning off her HD in sys. prefs. and should she shut the ext. HD down in sys. pref. before shutting down at night?
And, another thing, does leaving it in sleep mode make me any more vulnerable to hackers or am I safe leaving it on?
TIA

The computer can't get hacked into when it's asleep; all network activity except for magic packets to wake the system up is suspended.
(120883)

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hi
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-mj
[email protected]

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Hi there
I have an external HD connected via Firewire to my MBP. How can I achieve the following? :
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Hi to all, hope you can help .....
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Shutting down external HD

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