Safely remove usb flash drive - Can someone explain?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Sadie
  • Start date Start date
J

Jack Sadie

Apart from intermittent "drive not recognised" messages which I have to
ignore, I find flash drives extremely useful, but ....

I would dearly like to know why it is necessary to click on the "safely
remove your hardware" icon before extracting my flash drive? What dreadful
thing happens (or might happen)if I just pull it out ? I'm sure I've done
that unwittingly already and without any drastic loss so far.

(Sometimes I wonder if it is like the accusatory "Illegal Operation"
messages which Bill Gates used to send me with unfailing regularity so that
I cowered with shame in and disgrace until I discovered that most of them
were his fault anyway and nothing to do with me ! Or am I being too
critical?)
 
Clicking the Safe Remove icon ensures that all pending
disk writes are completed before you're given the go-ahead.
If you just pull it out then you might corrupt the contents
of the flash disk. Give it a try: Copy a large folder to it,
then remove the flash disk immediately after the process
finishes. You won't do any permanent damage but the
flash disk might have to be reformatted.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Clicking the Safe Remove icon ensures that all pending
disk writes are completed before you're given the go-ahead.
If you just pull it out then you might corrupt the contents
of the flash disk. Give it a try: Copy a large folder to it,
then remove the flash disk immediately after the process
finishes. You won't do any permanent damage but the
flash disk might have to be reformatted.
Click to expand...


Jack:
Access Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device
Manager). In the "Disk drives" section of Device Manager, right-click on the
USB flash device in question and select Properties. On the Properties sheet
that opens, click on the Policies tab. You'll see two options, one of which
is "Optimize for quick removal". Select that option if it's not already
selected (it's usually the default). Click OK.

Note the "Optimize for quick removal" option indicates "... you can
disconnect this device without using the Safe Removal icon".

If, on the other hand, the instructions that came with the device
*specifically* instructs the user to use the Safely Remove icon to stop the
device before ejecting or unplugging it (notwithstanding the "Optimize for
quick removal" option), then follow those instructions.

I would add that I've disconnected various USB devices hundreds of times
without using the Safely Remove Hardware icon (after ensuring that the
option mentioned above had been selected) and have never encountered a
single problem involving loss of data or any other problem affecting the
device or the OS.
Anna
 
Jack:
Access Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device
Manager). In the "Disk drives" section of Device Manager, right-click on the
USB flash device in question and select Properties. On the Properties sheet
that opens, click on the Policies tab. You'll see two options, one of which
is "Optimize for quick removal". Select that option if it's not already
selected (it's usually the default). Click OK.

Note the "Optimize for quick removal" option indicates "... you can
disconnect this device without using the Safe Removal icon".

If, on the other hand, the instructions that came with the device
*specifically* instructs the user to use the Safely Remove icon to stop the
device before ejecting or unplugging it (notwithstanding the "Optimize for
quick removal" option), then follow those instructions.

I would add that I've disconnected various USB devices hundreds of times
without using the Safely Remove Hardware icon (after ensuring that the
option mentioned above had been selected) and have never encountered a
single problem involving loss of data or any other problem affecting the
device or the OS.
Anna
Click to expand...

I have encountered a corrupted USB drive after removing it without clicking on
"Safe Removal..." icon. It seems that the problems are not uniform since some
PCs do not destroy USB drive and some do.
 
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