Windows 7: I unplugged my external hard drive without "Safely Remove" Can this da

After I finished transferred some files across from external hard drive to laptop and I used a picture from external hard drive as my background desktop but when I tried to click "Safely "remove it said there were programs running yet I have nothing transferring/connecting from external hard drive to laptop then I unplugged the USB device.

I did noticed when I removed the external hard drive my background picture was gone when I went to change themes, I'm worried so Can this damage to the laptop/external hard drive or corrupt software

That thing about programs using the drive happens a lot with my Toshiba lappy.
Unless you've changed any of the default hardware policies for the external drive (most of them won't even allow you to), unplugging without ejecting should not be a problem. Nevertheless, whenever you are unable to eject, it is better to wait till you turn off the computer before unplugging.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
J

the external needs to be on to show the picture you set as an background,
chances are there is no damage to the picture. .
if you want to continue using the picture with the external off then copy the pic over to the computers hardrive perhaps create a wallpaper folder in your users folder.

I'm just really worried if it can damage/harm laptop/external hard drive or corrupt anything

it should be fine.
the only thing that could corrupt is the image that was connected to the desktop, as you have nothing else running from the external hardrive.
test it by looking at the image that you had set as a background.
if it wont open then it may be corrupt.
unlikely though.
like i said before if you dont want the hardrive on constantly then copy over the pics you want as backgrounds.

IMO,This is definitely not a correct statement.

Removing an external USB device when it is in the read/write process can corrupt the partition table in the drive and make it RAW. While it is not the only reason why a drive turns RAW, in most cases it is. True, it may not happen everytime when one does it but the fact is it can happen and it has happened.

It can also happen when power to the dektop is suddenly interrupted or the battery in a laptop runs down and the system shuts down abruptly. Instances abound.

It is always recommended that these drives are safely ejected. If it says the drive is still in use try to eject it by right clicking on the drive icon in My Computer - where and if eject is available in the Menu or use a program like Unlocker to kill all the running processes or wait till you shut down the computer. Better to be safe than sorry.

If policies are set to quick removal for the drive, which is mos likely the case for a USB external drive, boobbah is most certainly right. If write-through caching is enabled it is highly unlikely that anything would happen to the drive by unplugging without ejecting.
"Quick removal
This option is usually the best choice for devices that you are likely to remove from the system frequently, such as USB flash drives, SD, MMC, Compact Flash, or similar memory cards, and other externally attached storage.

"When you select the Quick Removal option, Windows manages commands sent to the device using a method called write-through caching. In write-through caching, the device operates on write commands as if there were no cache. The cache may still provide a small performance benefit, but the emphasis is on treating the data as safely as possible by getting the commands to the principal storage. The main benefit is that you can remove the storage device from the system quickly without risking data loss. For example, if a flash drive were to be accidentally pulled out of its port, the data being written to it is much less likely to be lost." From windows help.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers,

J

i was refering to it in an idle state. my interpretation ,idle state=nothing running. hence not reading or writing.

Just a brief and final reply before I hit the sack. Not theory but practical user experiences.

When Windows proclaimed the device is still in use and the users pulled it out, many have found many files corrupted. hmmm... they were not reading or writing anything. According to them it was idle.

Again I have to emphasise, it may not happen all the time and to everybody. It depends on what processes are running in the background - not only the Window's processes but also the processes initiated by other installed programs, many of which do not close down even after closing the programs. Those may still be reading if not writing. And then even a virus can be reading and writing.

It is always safer to use any workarounds to close all running processes and safely remove the devices rather than taking a chance.

Good night and Good day - as applicable.

Excellent advice!