Safely Remove Hardware... is it necessary?

[compEngineer0]

I have a couple of SATA drives and a JumpDrive that I plug in occasionally, so the safely remove hardware is always in the systray. I was just wondering if this thing actually does anything and if its harmful to just pull the jumpdrive out without removing? what does removing it do?

[GX1_Man]

Always remove USB devices correctly. You are asking for problems if you don't!

[compEngineer0]

that's what i figured... i was just wondering what problems could arise. i'm not exactly sure what the problem is and why removing it fixes it. thanks.

[GX1_Man]

Due to the computer using "write behind", this is not recommended. "Write behind", is used to speed up the computer - instead of slowing down the system everytime you make a change, the computer will wait for "idle" time to write to a drive. You may not get updated files, or even get corrupted files. By "safely remove", the computer will force a write to the drive, and allow a complete check before it allows you to remove the drive. Just like shutting down the computer properly, instead of just turning the power off.

[compEngineer0]

cool thanks, that's what i was curious about