Safely Removing USB Memory Sticks

[Steve2000]

Does anyone still do this? I was told about 4 years ago that I should do it every time to avoid data corruption. So it developed into a habit over the last 4 years but just today I was told by two people that it makes no difference as long as the files on the stick aren't open when you remove it.

Are these horror stories of corruption just a load of old *****? Or does it really have such an effect?

 

[Lashout_UK]

I always pull out prematurely.

 

[JIM_BOB7813]

I think you're pretty safe as long as no files are still in use, but the only way to be 100% sure is to safely remove. Takes 2 seconds, and is hardly worth losing all your data over.

 

[semi-pro waster]

I've bothered with safely remove hardware maybe twice in all the time I've used USB devices (any of multiple options) and everything has always worked fine for me, as long as you don't have a delayed write option on the device enabled it shouldn't matter.

 

[Energize]

Disable write caching on the drive and there is no danger of data loss.

 

[Steve09]

I always use it.
I had a bit of coursework corrupted a couple of years ago and I had to do it again

 

[Jotun]

Disable write caching on the drive and there is no danger of data loss.

I believe it's disabled by default in windows anyway. Seem to remember a lecturer telling me that last year.

I've never bothered, and never had any problems, although I do try and make sure I always save a local copy too, so even if it did cause a problem with a file then it's not too much of a problem.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Disable write caching on the drive and there is no danger of data loss.

And always have a back up. Why people only store things in one place (usually a pen drive!?!!?) is frankly beyond me.

 

[Tombo]

I just don't remove it while reading or writing to it, never done me any harm.

 

[Burnsy2023]

Disable write caching on the drive and there is no danger of data loss.

I just don't remove it while reading or writing to it, never done me any harm.

^^

Q F T

Burnsy

 

[GeForce]

I just don't remove it while reading or writing to it, never done me any harm.

Same. I just back up my USB stick every couple of days just in case anything gets corrupted, or I lose it.

 

[Cybermyk]

I've seen two 1Gb+ drives trashed this week with important (but thankfully recoverable) data on them and I've recently seen people heading off to the US clutching their memory stick full of data and no backup.

It's all about luck.

 

[Bumhucker]

I always pull out prematurely.

Oh no he di ent!

 

[Fibre_Optic]

I believe it's disabled by default in windows anyway. Seem to remember a lecturer telling me that last year.

Your lecturer is 100% correct!

 

[Mattus]

Never used the safe removal thing. As people say, as long as there are no open files it should be fine.

 

[Win^]

Just pulled it out, but then some files got corrupted. Now always safely remove!

 

[Haggisman]

we get a couple of corrupt USB sticks each week from people not safe-removing them properly... usually around the time they have coursework to hand in, so they end up panicing >_<

 

[Aod]

i got into the habit of using it while working because the PC's i was using all ran windows 2000, where delayed writes / write caching is enabled by default.

i came *this* close to loosing a piece of coursework this one time so i got into the habit of it. anyway, when carrying something important it's always a good idea!

 

[Kreeeee]

FAT/FAT32 formatted you're perfectly fine, NTFS formatted you should wait a few seconds after the last data transfer before removing it. You never need to run "safely remove USB device"

 

[Fuzz]

I just make sure the light isn't flashing and just yank it out.. Never lost anything.