Do you safely remove hardware

[DirtRider]

I was just wondering how many people actually use the safely remove hardware USB option.

 

[fANAT1C]

I only safely remove it when the hardware I use is not mine. I just unplug the hardware if it's mine, whatever it is. I never had something that broke because I didn't safely remove it.

 

[strollin]

I personally always do a safe removal. Doing a safe removal checks to make sure all open files are closed and any cached writes have been written to the device.

 

[1Bowtie]

It only takes once that you lose alot of important files that you can't get back so +1 on safely remove

 

[alphanumeric]

Always

 

[hkancyr]

Never.

 

[fseal]

On windows, NTFS aggressively writes to removable media (anything that will bring up the safely remove option). As long as you don't INSTANTLY pull the drive, I've never lost anything by not doing it, though because of (below) I now just do it out of habit.

Linux though (and possibly mac but not tested) has the /laziest/ cache writing mechanism imaginable for every file system I've used. You HAVE to use it or you WILL lose your data.

 

[kodi]

I always safely remove hardware

 

[marsmimar]

I was copying some files to an external hard drive. I unplugged before it was finished because I was in too much of a hurry to use the safely removed hardware option. Lesson learned.

 

[TVeblen]

We need an "when necessary" option.

I always use it for external hard drives.
I never use it for thumb drives, cameras, or printers.

 

[mickey megabyte]

no, i don't bother, and have never run into any problems.

i always give the file transfer some time and patience.

some of the better flash drives have activity lights which makes it easier.

maybe if it was super-important data i might give it a go, but none of my data so far has been so vital.

 

[fANAT1C]

It only takes once that you lose alot of important files that you can't get back so +1 on safely remove

Lol, every file I got on my laptop is backed up on all of my external hard disks.

 

[boohbah]

never, im lazy

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

It only takes once that you lose alot of important files that you can't get back so +1 on safely remove

Been there, Done that = safely remove hardware !

 

[youllbelost]

not as such..
But always when copying large chunks of data because of the "shadow copy".

 

[Carl Lawrence]

I do not bother, because when I am at work at my community centre you are not allowed to right-click anyway.

 

[ZaLiTH]

I always use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' option... Maybe I should say always... Or actually, it deserves an always. Lol.

Perhaps it's because I'm a big fan of automatic defrag apps that run in the background while I use my machine, but I have had data on external drives corrupt way too many times for my liking from simply unplugging a drive, even once I've finished copying to or from it.

If I can't safely remove it, then I log off, log on and try again. And if that fails, then I restart. Why you looking at me like that..? I'm paranoid ok...

By the way, Love Windows 7: it's quicker to left click on the systray icon to safely remove hardware than it is via the right click method. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[fseal]

I do not bother, because when I am at work at my community centre you are not allowed to right-click anyway.

O.O

Well your in luck, safely removing a drive on Windows 7 only requires left clicks now anyway

 

[ZaLiTH]

I do not bother, because when I am at work at my community centre you are not allowed to right-click anyway.

O.O

Well your in luck, safely removing a drive on Windows 7 only requires left clicks now anyway

XP and Vista work with left click too... But they only list the drive letter, not the volume name like 7 does.

 

[Hopalong X]

Always!