Unplugging External Drive
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From: Robert Lee on 9 Apr 2010 14:21 I have an external hard drive plugged into a USB port. I want to unplug it without shutting off the computer. Sometimes, if I turn off my Norton Anti-Virus program, I can get the "Safe to Remove" message. But often time, that doesn't work. What's the worst that could happen if I unplug the drive without getting the "Safe to Remove" message?
From: Tom Willett on 9 Apr 2010 14:23 "Robert Lee" <RobertLee(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3F9484A4-95F4-47E4-8278-94CCAC189B02(a)microsoft.com... :I have an external hard drive plugged into a USB port. I want to unplug it : without shutting off the computer. Sometimes, if I turn off my Norton : Anti-Virus program, I can get the "Safe to Remove" message. But often time, : that doesn't work. : : What's the worst that could happen if I unplug the drive without getting the : "Safe to Remove" message? You could lose all the data. You need to lose Norton, instead.
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 9 Apr 2010 14:24 On Fri, 9 Apr 2010 11:21:01 -0700, Robert Lee <RobertLee(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I have an external hard drive plugged into a USB port. I want to unplug it > without shutting off the computer. Sometimes, if I turn off my Norton > Anti-Virus program, I can get the "Safe to Remove" message. But often time, > that doesn't work. > > What's the worst that could happen if I unplug the drive without getting the > "Safe to Remove" message? A file on it could get garbled. But if you simply wait a couple of minutes after last use of it, the risk is very small. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: Lem on 9 Apr 2010 14:37 Robert Lee wrote: > I have an external hard drive plugged into a USB port. I want to unplug it > without shutting off the computer. Sometimes, if I turn off my Norton > Anti-Virus program, I can get the "Safe to Remove" message. But often time, > that doesn't work. > > What's the worst that could happen if I unplug the drive without getting the > "Safe to Remove" message? The danger in disconnecting a drive is that you could lose data. Plainly, if you disconnect the drive while some application actually is writing to it, you will have a problem. You may, however, not know if data is being written to the drive because, under some circumstances, Windows "caches" data to be written on a disk in RAM. This permits the program generating the information to generate data more rapidly than it could be written to the disk. Periodically, Windows actually writes the cached data to the disk. If you disconnect a drive for which caching is being used, you risk losing some data. In general, a USB drive should have caching turned off. Open Device Manager, right click on the drive, and select Properties. Click on the Policies tab. Select the top radio button to "Optimize for quick removal" and OK your way out. -- Lem Apollo 11 - 40 years ago: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
From: Robert Lee on 10 Apr 2010 10:37
Thanks to everyone who responded. Do you know what processes are preventing me from getting the "Safe to Remove" message? On some occasions, I have gotten the message after stopping: 1) searchindexer, and 2) Norton Antivirus. But stopping those doesn't consistently result in getting the "Safe to Remove" message. What other software may be preventing me from getting the message? "Robert Lee" wrote: > I have an external hard drive plugged into a USB port. I want to unplug it > without shutting off the computer. Sometimes, if I turn off my Norton > Anti-Virus program, I can get the "Safe to Remove" message. But often time, > that doesn't work. > > What's the worst that could happen if I unplug the drive without getting the > "Safe to Remove" message? |