USB drive

[imported_Neptune]

I just got a 1gb kingston usb drive on sale today at futureshop for $14. I needed it for school. Everything on it works fine its just that when it is plugged in, an icon in the taskbar appears: "Safely remove hardware." it asks me to open up a window and click "stop" after ive selected the right drive, then it says it is safe to remove it.

My question is, is it necessary to "stop" it before removing, or can i just copy my files and pull the dang thing out quickly?

[Minicoop503]

Re: USB drive

I never do, I just make sure I'm not copying any files at the time, and that I close the window before I pull it out. I've never lost any data doing this..

[=98=]

Re: USB drive

I heard doing that actively stops the power going to the drive, thus reducing the risk of it shorting or something.

I might have just been told a load of balls though. It only takes 3 secs to be on the safe side though

[sava700]

Re: USB drive

I heard doing that actively stops the power going to the drive, thus reducing the risk of it shorting or something.

I might have just been told a load of balls though. It only takes 3 secs to be on the safe side though

I agree with this post.. it will cause the ports to short out, seen it done many times, however the newer drives are being made to avoid this but not sure of to what they are doing with them. I need to read up on that again.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: USB drive

Not critical for flash drives: no moving parts.

If you are using a micro-drive/pocket drive, then it is much more important to stop it before unplugging it so that it isn't spinning and losing power at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_hard_drive

[imported_Neptune]

Re: USB drive

Thanks for the replies, i guess i wont do it n see what happens :laugh:.

Not critical for flash drives: no moving parts.

If you are using a micro-drive/pocket drive, then it is much more important to stop it before unplugging it so that it isn't spinning and losing power at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_hard_drive

Definetly not one of those, it has no moving parts and is small, so hopefully it should be difficult to damage it.

[sava700]

Re: USB drive

Not critical for flash drives: no moving parts.

If you are using a micro-drive/pocket drive, then it is much more important to stop it before unplugging it so that it isn't spinning and losing power at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_hard_drive

Anything hooked to the USB port is having continues power at all times therefore windows is picking it up. Its best to stop it before removing it for the short reason.