You should not have to remove it. YMMV, of course.

I was lectured by a TSO at ... hmm, I think it was ORF ... for not removing my portable hard drive. "Sir! We asked that all large electronics be removed!" she said. "We'll make an exception this time, but you really need to take this out next time."

At MRY, they were training a new TSO, and she was having issues with my bag on the x-ray machine; she kept running it through and getting confused about what she was seeing. The trainer pointed out, "No, that's just a large hard drive. See the other camera gear? Photographers often travel with stuff like that--no need for a bag check." ^