Devices sold under the USB3 platform and "SuperSpeed" USB3 may not necessarily be more effective than eSATA, but I think this is a whole different argument. There are many 2.5" drive enclosures that can support up to 2TB 7200RPM laptop drives powered by eSATA and a USB cable that are portable, fast, speedy, and highly controllable.
Typically, with the type of device you have, with no on or off switch, it will be difficult to cut the power without "Safely Removing" the device and unplugging it. On most computers, USB ports are still powered-on unless power management features cut off power to the ports. This complies with the USB standard which allows you to dismount devices but still recharge them using the USB controller. You should take some comfort in knowing that most super-portable enclosures (even ones you assemble yourself) no longer feature on/off switching on the device. There is a pretty good reasoning for this - for one, it's extra money. But for functionality's sake, it is bad practice. Simply stated, most people have a tendency to go for that off switch far more than they will ever navigate to the system tray and safely remove the device. The off switch would be equivalent to cutting power abruptly to the drive or entire computer were it still mounted while Windows was on. Forcing you to safely remove the drive and also unplug it makes it that much less likely you will have data loss or physical damage to the hard disk.
If your hard drive is SMART compatible and adheres to the standards of most devices, then you should absolutely be able to pull this information. I typically use AIDA64 for these types of diagnostics, and the trial is free. This is not an endorsement, but the simple reality that I use paid software to get a full account of all system resources when I diagnose a system. It is extraordinarily thorough and sufficient enough that you would be able to pull this information. You can try the AIDA64 trial to try to pull this information. There are other freeware alternatives, including Belarc. I don't recommend Belarc due to an incident that took place in the XP days whereas people who posted their system specs online inadvertently had their product keys posted as well. This was searchable on Google for quite some time (although by now this has been fixed).
To control the drive from Windows, you want to use the Disk Management MMC (Microsoft Management Console). Start -> Search -> diskmgmt.msc
From there, you can control partitions up to a point. Freeware utilities out there will allow you to run drive diagnostics, perform more heavy duty partition work, and alter things like the boot sector. For full control of external drives for backup purposes, you want to start looking into more commercial solutions.
Ultimately, the best bet for managing this device when turning it on and off is to safely remove the device and unplug its power source upon safe removal. This will ensure longevity of the drive. Remember, that behind all of the aesthetics and bells and whistles of an external drive, or lack thereof, you simply have a 3.5" or 2.5" conventional hard disk drive installed inside of it. Nothing special is going, besides the conversion to USB, FireWire, or eSATA. I hope this helps!