Thread: Safely removing your hardware

Whenever you plug in an external memory device to your computer, an icon pops up on your taskbar that reads: "Safely Remove Hardware". This icon also appears when you attach a device that incorporates memory, for example, a digital camera.

The "Safely Remove Hardware" option appears because if you disconnect the drive when data is being written or read from the drive, there is a strong possibility that data on the drive can get corrupted. On the other hand, if the device was not in use when you disconnected it, your data could be intact.

Windows XP is equipped with write caching for removable drives that are disabled by default, thereby reducing the possibility of data corruption. However, in the case of other versions of Windows like 2000 or 98, this remains enabled by default. This can slow down the reading or writing from an external drive. To check if write caching is disabled on your drive, follow these steps:



o Connect your drive to your computer. Open ".My Computer", right¬click on the external drive, and select " Properties".

o Under the drive's properties, select the "Hardware" tab, and select the drive again under "All disk drives" and select "Properties".

o In the drive properties dialog box, select the "Policies" tab and select the "Optimize for quick removal" option.

Also it's possible that using a hi-speed or USB 2.0 device on USB 1.1 port can slow down the performance of the drive.

It is a good practice to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" option whenever possible.
It is stiLL recommended that you do so to ensure that the writing or reading from the device has been completed. It is reasonably safe to puLL it out, but there is still the possibility of data corruption if it is not safely disconnected.