Windows 7: Safely remove usb device

Have you noticed that when you requst to safly remove a "disk on key" you get the o.k to remove msg but the light on
the device stays on (unlike xp where the light turns off)

Are you using the USB device for ReadyBoost?

Hello Antonigaribaldi, and welcome to Seven Forums.

This is normal. Some external devices lights will turn off afterwards, while some will not. As long as you get the ok to safely remove the drive, then it will be ok to disconnect it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

hm...interesting...

No sir it is not normal as it will remove power on XP, but wouldn't do this on Windows 7. Also when I do eject on XP USB HDD stops spinning, but if I do eject on Windows 7 it continue to spin even Windows 7 says it is safe to remove! I think it is serios problem in Windows 7 unless sombody knows how to fix it!

Hello Volja, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm not sure why some do and some don't, but it seems to be normal in Windows 7. It's part of hot swap. As long as you get the ok to remove, you are fine and safe to disconnect it.

Brink, can you explain the risks if such a device is removed before getting the okay prompt?

Hi Greg,

Sure thing.

The ok message assures you that there is no longer anything being written to or saved from the device. If the device is removed without the ok message and something just happens to currently be writting to or saving from the device at that moment, then you will lose that data and possibly corrupt the device or the HDD that is being saved to from the device.

Thanks for the Welcome! I find this is a nice forum!
Mate, I still believe that it is not normal if your hard drive is still spinning and you remove the power from it. It should stop first then you remove the power that what is happening in Windows XP. I like Windows 7 I really do, but this way to handle external USB hard drives really make me worry!

It doesn't remove power to the device when clicking the "safely remove". Some lights refer to Power and some refer to read/write. Power is never cut from the USB port.

usb sticks that are formatted in fat are an on demand write process, thus clicking the safely remove device when it's just sitting there is useless.

Obviously if the stick has a 3Hr copy time and you yank it out there will be problems... but clicking the "safely remove" in the same scenario won't help that either.