Problem when removing USB flash drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sammy bin Snoozin
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Sammy bin Snoozin

I have a Lexar 512MB flash drive, JDSP-512-...? rest of the number is rubbed out. Have used it for a few years on Win98SE and now Win2000Prof. Ever since installing Win2000Prof, if I save a file or folder to the drive, wait a few seconds and then remove it, those files are not seen on the drive when I install at new computer. Same if I plug back to Win2000P computer. I have to save a file, then re-open it from the drive location to be sure it is on the drive.

Probably related but don't know how to solve this either -- when I remove the drive, the error message comes up "unsafe removal of device... you have unplugged a device without stopping it... to safely unplug, use the hardware wizard to stop the device..." Also, it says "if you need to freq unplug, windows can give you an icon on the taskbar....etc..." And if I select "yes" to this, nothing appears and same thing happens next time.

Never saw that before. Anyone know how to correct either of these?

Thanks in advance!

Sam
 
Previously Sammy bin Snoozin said:
I have a Lexar 512MB flash drive, JDSP-512-...? rest of the number is rubbed out. Have used it for a few years on Win98SE and now Win2000Prof. Ever since installing Win2000Prof, if I save a file or folder to the drive, wait a few seconds and then remove it, those files are not seen on the drive when I install at new computer. Same if I plug back to Win2000P computer. I have to save a file, then re-open it from the drive location to be sure it is on the drive.
Click to expand...
Probably related but don't know how to solve this either -- when I remove the drive, the error message comes up "unsafe removal of device... you have unplugged a device without stopping it... to safely unplug, use the hardware wizard to stop the device..." Also, it says "if you need to freq unplug, windows can give you an icon on the taskbar....etc..." And if I select "yes" to this, nothing appears and same thing happens next time.
Click to expand...
Never saw that before. Anyone know how to correct either of these?
Click to expand...
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Sam
Click to expand...

To make the "safe removal" mostly unnedded, disabke buffering on
USB. It will make writes far slower though.

Arno
 
Thanks, Arno. How do you disable buffering?

Arno Wagner said:
To make the "safe removal" mostly unnedded, disabke buffering on
USB. It will make writes far slower though.

Arno
Click to expand...
 
Previously Sammy bin Snoozin said:
Thanks, Arno. How do you disable buffering?
Click to expand...

Should be somewere in the system settings. Sorry, I never used
w2k, so I really do not know.

Arno
 
Arnie ****up said:
Should be somewere in the system settings. Sorry, I never used
w2k, so I really do not know.
Click to expand...
No, it's not in system settings. Perhaps it's almost the same as XP, Annie.
 
I believe it is called "write-behind caching":
http://www.accucadd.com/TechNotes/Cache/WriteBehindCache.htm#2000
Click to expand...

Actually cacheing is only re-delivering data that was deliverd
before from a "hidden" memory pool, to make it faster. Buffering
is storing data in an intermediate memory pool, to defer an
operation, in the disks case also to reorder writes and do
them in larger pieces.

The therm "caching" is often used wrongly to also refer to
buffering, so if you want to look for buffers in a situation
you often need to search for caching as well.

The thing done here is "delayed write", "write gathering" or
the buffer part of using the filesystem buffer-cache.
"buffer-cache, because the same memory pool is used for
buffering and cacheing, and the respective functions
dynamically divide the memory between them. At least that
is how a Unix buffer-cache does it.

Arno
 
Arno Wagner said:
Actually cacheing is only re-delivering data that was deliverd
before from a "hidden" memory pool, to make it faster. Buffering
is storing data in an intermediate memory pool, to defer an
operation, in the disks case also to reorder writes and do
them in larger pieces.

The therm "caching" is often used wrongly to also refer to
buffering, so if you want to look for buffers in a situation
you often need to search for caching as well.

The thing done here is "delayed write", "write gathering" or
the buffer part of using the filesystem buffer-cache.
"buffer-cache, because the same memory pool is used for
buffering and cacheing, and the respective functions
dynamically divide the memory between them. At least that
is how a Unix buffer-cache does it.

Arno
Click to expand...

Arno, what steps would I follow to do this? Win2000Prof.

Sam
 
Thanks Franc, nice page & good info. I just disabled caching, but the same error "stop device with control panel" still comes up with removing the flash drive though.

Sam
Click to expand...

Do you see the same message if you insert and remove your flash drive
without writing anything to it? Are you still losing data? Does
Scandisk (or whatever W2K uses) find any file system errors?

I use Win98SE. If I remove my flash drive without using the hotplug
utility, then Explorer displays a ghost drive letter. If I then
reinsert the flash drive, a second drive shows up with the same
letter.

- Franc Zabkar
 
Franc Zabkar said:
Do you see the same message if you insert and remove your flash drive
without writing anything to it?
Click to expand...

Yes

Are you still losing data?

Yes

Does
Scandisk (or whatever W2K uses) find any file system errors?
No.

I use Win98SE. If I remove my flash drive without using the hotplug
utility, then Explorer displays a ghost drive letter. If I then
reinsert the flash drive, a second drive shows up with the same
letter.
Click to expand...

I have another PC with 98SE and it works fine. Have had this problem ever since installing 2000Prof on this computer.

Now, if a file will fit on a floppy, I have gone back to using that for now.

Here's what's happening...

Just now I opened a file from hard drive with Word, saved to flash, closed it, closed Word. Opened program, open file on flash -- it's there, no problem with it. Close file, close Word. Remove flash, reinsert flash, open Word, access flash -- no file shows up on flash.
 
Sammy said:
I have a Lexar 512MB flash drive, JDSP-512-...? rest of the number is rubbed out. Have used it for a few years on Win98SE and now Win2000Prof. Ever since installing Win2000Prof, if I save a file or folder to the drive, wait a few seconds and then remove it, those files are not seen on the drive when I install at new computer. Same if I plug back to Win2000P computer. I have to save a file, then re-open it from the drive location to be sure it is on the drive.

Probably related but don't know how to solve this either -- when I remove the drive, the error message comes up "unsafe removal of device... you have unplugged a device without stopping it... to safely unplug, use the hardware wizard to stop the device..." Also, it says "if you need to freq unplug, windows can give you an icon on the taskbar....etc..." And if I select "yes" to this, nothing appears and same thing happens next time.

Never saw that before. Anyone know how to correct either of these?

Thanks in advance!

Sam
Click to expand...
Are we missing the obvious here?
You should have an icon in the system tray or dashboard or quicklaunch
or whatever it's called next to the clock. Looks like a card with an
arrow over it. If you don't have it, you stated the message that told
you how to get it.

Now, it don't work if you don't click it.

When you want to remove the device, click the icon. You'll get a list
of devices it knows about.
Click to remove the one you want. You'll get a message box saying that
it's safe to remove the device...or that it cannot be removed. If you
have a directory open on the device, you have to navigate away from it
before you can remove it safely.

Simple matter of following the directions you posted.
yes?
no?

If you've been unsafely removing, suggest you
reformat the drive. At least run chkdsk on it.

mike
 
HOLY SMOKES, MIKE!! Thanks for pointing that out. Nothing ever said there was an icon in the tray to click before removing. Works slicker'n goose snot!

Thanks a heap!!!

Sam

PS - I did write to Lexar and they confirmed this was the right way to do it. I suggested that they put this procedure on their website.
 
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