USB thingies

Another interesting cluster of questions about USB drives this week.

I have had a client trash the data completely and two others mess up the document they had been working on this week all because they just pulled their USB thngy out without doing the safe shutdown bit.

So lets start with a simple statement.

Microsoft says it’s OK to pull them out so it must be true. NOT in a fit and when did you start blieving them any way?

See the problem is when you copy or drag files over to the USB drive, the files may not transfer immediately and probably sit in a buffer area for a short time if the computer is busy doing other things. If you yank the drive without telling the computer what you are doing, any files in the process of being copied to the portable drive could get trashed.

In Windows XP, click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Taskbar (which looks like a green arrow pointing at a downward angle) to release the drive correctly.

You can also right-click on the icon to get a list of attached devices if you have several connected. (and dont we all).

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.