0
When you plug in a USB drive, you give your PC free reign to write and read data from it; some of which is cached.
Caching occurs by not writing information immediately to the USB device, and instead keeping it in your PC's memory (RAM). If you were to yank the USB drive out of your PC before this infromation is written, or while its being written, you'll end up with a corrupted file.
However, Windows automatically disables caching on USB devices, unless you specifically say that you want it enabled. For the most part you don't have to click the 'Safely Remove Hardware' button, if you aren't writting or reading anything from the device.
Its there simply as an extra level of security preventing you from destroying your own files. Doing so causes the files to close "gracefully", preserving data, pointers and file size indicators. When writing to disk the computer doesn't always "flush" a buffer and only part of the data may have been written. Using the proper procedure will assure that the data and pointers are in good shape.
Wiki User
∙ 16y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
How does one remove a flash drive so the Light doesn't stay on?
Right Click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, and press on the "safely remove" button.
How to unplug external hard drive safely?
on the right bottom corner you will see a little icon , right click and then click safely remove hardware and unplug
How do you safely eject your USB drive from a computer if your toolbar doesn't have the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon?
Click Start (or press Start), then click Run (or search "Run"). A little window should pop up titled "Run," and all you have to do is click OK after pasting the following: RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll The window that allows you to safely eject your flash drive will pop up like it normally would if the icon was on the bottom toolbar and you right-clicked the icon to left-click "Safely Remove Hardware."
How a memory stick can be safely removed from the computer?
This depends on what you mean by memory stick: Internal Memory: (Random Access Memory, the chips you don't see unless you open up the computer) To remove RAM, the procedure varies by computer. In this case, if you are not comfortable doing so I would contact a technician, as was previously suggested. Now, if you mean a Flash Drive (one you carry with you to hold your files), than that is a different story. To safely remove that: In windows - In the bottom right corner hold your mouse over the small icons until you see one that reads "Safely remove hardware...". Right-click and when the menu opens, left click. This will bring up the main menu to stop and remove hardware. Follow the on-screen instructions. On a Mac - Drag the picture of your flash drive that is on the desktop, to the trash bin. You may then remove the flash drive safely. Cheers
When is it safe to take the flash usb drive out?
After you right-click the little USB icon in the bottom right corner of the screen near the time (if you have a Windows, I don't know about other computers) and hit Safely Remove Hardware.
Safely remove hardware icon is missing it is not hidden when you went to customize notification found by right clicking on the system tray you found a folder called safely remove hardware under past y?
If you've seen the "Safely remove hardware icon" before, but it no longer appears, this method may work. Under Windows XP, right-click on the system tray (where the clock is). Ensure that "Lock the Taskbar" is not ticked. Select "Properties" and the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window is displayed. Under the "Taskbar" tab, check the "Hide inactive icons" box. The "Customize..." button is now active. Click "Customize..." and the "Customize Notifications" window is displayed. Scroll down to the "Past Items" group and you should see the "Safely Remove Hardware" option. Set this to the required value, then click "OK. The method described above may not work if the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon is shown as a folder rather than the correct icon. Try this fix: 1) With a USB drive inserted right click on the drive in "My Computer" and select "Properties" then "Hardware" 2) Click on your hardware in the list and select "Properties" again. (Alternatively you can double click on the drive in Control Panel>System Properties>Device Manager>Disk Drives) 3) Click on "Policies". Normally the "Optimize for quick removal" button will be active - but don't change this. Instead click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" link in "Optimize for performance" 4) Again select your hardware and click "Stop". Click "OK". This will stop your hardware and it can now be safely removed. This is a work around for the missing icon but you should not need to do it more than once - the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon should now appear normally in the Notification Area whenever ANY removable device is reinserted - hopefully for good. 5) Make sure that the icon is not hidden in "Customize Notifications" as described above. This has worked for a USB flash drive (thumb drive) in XP but might work for other removable hardware as well. (e.g. use this procedure with a USB drive to fix the missing icon for removable CD / DVD drive on a laptop) 6) Take a look at any download software that has installed connectivity applications as part of the package eg iTunes, Ovi Player. Uninstall (add/remove programs) and then reinstall (from the web site) and just re-enter your account details. Clearing any corruption with these can bring back the USB support. 7) Another possible reason to lose the icon is that the TCP/IP stack is corrupted and needs resetting. Search Microsoft for their utility for doing this. It's all done over the web (very painless).
If your computer doesn't have a safely remove button is your USB devise still safely removed?
If there isn't a button, you can go to My Computer, right click the device, and in the menu, there should be an option to eject safely. If you remove it before you "safely remove" when you insert a pen drive you will the safety remove icon in your PC.
How do you eject a flashdrive from the computer?
Click on the bottom toolbar of the computer. Click on the icon on the right side of the toolbar that says "Safely Remove Hardware". Left-click on the icon to remove the USB that you are using if you are confident that that is the USB you want to eject. Right-click on the icon if you are not sure and would like to see the details of it before ejecting it. Wait for the message that instructs you to eject before removing it. Another way would be to shut down your computer before removing the USB drive. DO NOT plug it out without doing the above instructions, as this might lead to loss of information and damage the USB drive.
A user has been writing data to a USB flash memory drive What should the user do before removing the device?
The user should close all windows relating to the flash drive, and then click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on the bottom right of the screen. It features a gray/silver drive and a green arrow.
Hy do you have to use 'Safely Remove Hardware' before you can unplug a USB Flash drive?
This ensures that all data has been synchronized to the drive, such as copying or deleting. Otherwise, the file system may become corrupted.
How do you safely remove devices from the computer?
When a device such as a USB drive is plugged in to your computer down in the lower right hand corner where your clock is at there should be an arrow pointing up click on that arrow. Within that arrow are other icons. There is an icon that shows that your USB drive is still plugged in.. Right click on that icon and there will be a drop down menu that pops up from that drop down menu you will click eject. Once you click eject you will safely be able to remove your device from the computer.
A user has been writing data to a USB flash memory drive.What should the user do before removing the device?
Use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature in Windows to unmount the drive.
