Do you safely remove hardware

[The Howling Wolves]

I always practice "Safely Removal!"

 

[youllbelost]

i assume that everyone knows that there is an option in the OS for optimizing for safely removal or not..It is NOT necessary to safely remove a drive.:huh:

 

[fseal]

i assume that everyone knows that there is an option in the OS for optimizing for safely removal or not..It is NOT necessary to safely remove a drive.:huh:

That optimization only hastens the flushing of files and reduces other write acess to the drive. But it isn't a magic pill. In fact the only reason that so many people can get away with not using the safe eject is that USB thumb drives and other flash media are mounted optimized for safe removal already

But there is no way to reduce the error window to zero on a fat file system. If you just pull the drive at exactly the wrong time (Or when still writing) you will lose data at least or even hose the file system requiring a repair (and losing even more data).

Clicking safely remove causes windows to wait till the write is done before telling you it can be safely removed at minimum... It will also hold off on new writes by programs, telling them the drive is not availble befor eyou remove it, sort of "putting a foot in the door" so you can even get a window of oppourtunity to remove the drive.

 

[housry23]

I do it when it is needed. I always do it when transferring files to my phone or other drives, but for cameras and the printer no, or if the drive has been plugged in for a while and I know that nothing is transferring I just pull it out.

 

[wilywombat]

Has anyone else noticed that the symptoms in http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-popup-scan-prompt-when-plugin-usb-stick.html occur if you remove the USB stick without going through the "Safe removal" route??

 

[thefabe]

I have a powered 4 port USB hub and I'm sure it's not the best way to go about it but I don't think I've ever used Safely remove hardware.
Fabe

 

[Barman58]

We need an "when necessary" option.

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

Added and edited poll

 

[fseal]

Has anyone else noticed that the symptoms in http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-popup-scan-prompt-when-plugin-usb-stick.html occur if you remove the USB stick without going through the "Safe removal" route??

The general reason for that is that Windows thinks that the fat32 file system is damaged.

If it starts happening after pulling a USB drive then yes the file system was damaged because of not safely ejecting the drive. You need to scan and repair it. The warning should go away. You can scan manually by right clicking the drive wntry in explorer and slecting Properties then Tools then Check Now...

 

[Orbital Shark]

I only remove if the hardware I plug in has a short life expectancy...

e.g eventually my external HD that I transfer all my HD moves to (for viewing on ps3) is on it's last legs...better safe than sorry as I have more than 60 films...LOL

 

[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.

Added and edited poll

Thanks Barman!
But I voted already! Oh the pain!! :sarc:

 

[Barman58]

Yeah you voted for when necessary

 

[madtownidiot]

On some devices it isn't necessary. On some devices like external usb hdds there isn't really a way to safely remove them without shutting down either windows or the device

 

[xarden]

Never.
I just wait for the activity light on the device to finish blinking.
All that option is useful for is to finish any current read/write activity after that file, then let you know its finished.
But if you already know its finished, because the light is not blinking, then its safe.

Edit: Made a typo. But I've been quoted already

 

[youllbelost]

Never.
I just wait for the activity light on the device to finish blinking.
All that option is useful for is to finish any current read/write activity after that fine, then let you know its finished.
But if you already know its finished, because the light is not blinking, then its safe.

 

[StalkeR]

I always do this

 

[blkdrgn]

I used to but now I don't. Knock on wood but so far my external HD has not lost any data. I only use it to transfer data so I still have the original files.

In Disk Management you can verify the setting for your drive.

 

[need4steer]

i assume that everyone knows that there is an option in the OS for optimizing for safely removal or not..It is NOT necessary to safely remove a drive.:huh:

That optimization only hastens the flushing of files and reduces other write acess to the drive. But it isn't a magic pill. In fact the only reason that so many people can get away with not using the safe eject is that USB thumb drives and other flash media are mounted optimized for safe removal already

But there is no way to reduce the error window to zero on a fat file system. If you just pull the drive at exactly the wrong time (Or when still writing) you will lose data at least or even hose the file system requiring a repair (and losing even more data).

Clicking safely remove causes windows to wait till the write is done before telling you it can be safely removed at minimum... It will also hold off on new writes by programs, telling them the drive is not availble befor eyou remove it, sort of "putting a foot in the door" so you can even get a window of oppourtunity to remove the drive.

Thanks a lot for this!.

I always safe remove the hardware. Only a few seconds for a healthier hardware.
However I do get annoyed when the device can't be safely removed because apparently there is some program that still using it.



Even though I'm sure I can safely eject it. But even then I'm making an effort and restarting / shutting down the machine if possible.

Here SanDisk's reference to this issue:
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1168
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/308/related/1

 

[noobvious]

I always use the safely remove with any Mass Storage Class device, whether it is my camera, external HDD,the card reader in my printer, or one of my MP3 players. I have had MP3 players in the past that operated under the MTP protocol, however, and with those it is not necessary, as long as any transfer has ceased.

As several have said before, better safe than sorry.