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Author Topic: 'Safe' to remove hardware?  (Read 3280 times)

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Treval

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    'Safe' to remove hardware?
    « on: April 14, 2010, 05:20:57 AM »

    What does Windows mean by "it's now 'safe' to remove hardware", when you are going to unplug a USB removable pen drive?
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    EEVIAC

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    Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
    « Reply #1 on: April 14, 2010, 05:40:52 AM »
    http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/236841-31-safely-remove-hardware


    This is probably the best explaination I've read..
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    BC_Programmer


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    Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
    « Reply #2 on: April 14, 2010, 05:44:30 AM »
    smartdrv /c, anybody?  ;D

    Ejecting a USB pen drive forces all the write-cached data to be flushed to the drive, and also removes it from the system.

    Personally I just disable write-caching for all my external drives and unplug them as long as I'm not writing or reading from them.
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    Treval

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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #3 on: April 14, 2010, 07:16:59 AM »
      What do you mean 'flushed to the drive'?
      What is the problem by just snapping the drive out of the USB port without 'safely' removing? =)

      I also read that in XP, if you unplug and replug the drive too many times consequently, XP will mess up and won't remember the actual status of the USB device plugged in. LOL!

      Meanwhile I'll read EEVIAC's link. ^^
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      neelchauhan

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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #4 on: April 14, 2010, 10:42:13 AM »
      It means that the device is not powered and you can remove it.
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      Accessless



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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #5 on: April 14, 2010, 02:34:23 PM »
      Quote from: neelchauhan on April 14, 2010, 10:42:13 AM
      It means that the device is not powered and you can remove it.

      Removing/ejecting the device does not cut the power from it. It just stops any reading or writing to the device selected.
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      Quantos



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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #6 on: April 14, 2010, 03:11:36 PM »
      Quote from: Accessless on April 14, 2010, 02:34:23 PM
      Removing/ejecting the device does not cut the power from it. It just stops any reading or writing to the device selected.

       ???  ???  ???
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      Accessless



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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #7 on: April 14, 2010, 04:56:39 PM »
      Sorry gibberish moment. Translation:

      Using the 'safely remove hardware' function does not stop the connected USB device from receiving power from the USB port. It only stops any data transfers either from or to the device to prevent file damage or loss.
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      BC_Programmer


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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #8 on: April 14, 2010, 07:32:45 PM »
      I understood the meaning :P

      Really you only eject/stop storage devices, simply because there could be data that windows is holding onto in RAM, waiting for an idle time to write it to the disk.
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      Re: 'Safe' to remove hardware?
      « Reply #9 on: April 15, 2010, 03:41:54 PM »
      The way I originally read it I actually thought that he was saying the device was 'Magically' getting power through the 'ether' after it was unplugged :)
      I just couldn't figure out a way to say it at the time without sounding rude.
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