USB devices

[Rocky]

Hi. When I hook up my smart card reader to the computer I see the icon that
says to safely detach this device click here, which I do when I'm ready to
unplug it from the USB port. My question is, I forgot to do that the other
day, and just unplugged the card reader and plugged in my scanner, did I
cause any damage? Everything seems to be fine, but would that cause
something to go wrong later on? I know with USB you can hot plug devices,
but I'm not sure if in this case I should have shut the device down first.
Thanks

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You are probably fine. If there was an issue, you probably would have gotten
a stop (blue screen) error.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Mikhail Zhilin]

When you select "Safely remove" device -- Windows finishes all the
operations with it, and closes all the files on it.

Without this operation it is possible to damage the logical file
structure on the removable drive when detach it, particularly if the
writing to this device is not finished to this moment -- but no physical
(including electrical) damages in any case.
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======

 

[Rocky]

Thanks to all who replied! I understand now, the feature is mainly to
ensure that you don't unplug the device while it is writing, reading or
performing any other function. I was worried it may have corrupted
something in the registry or OS.
I don't get the "Safe to remove hardware" message with my scanner
though, is this just with devices that read and write data? It's not with
every USB device correct?
Thanks, and Happy new year!

 

[Mikhail Zhilin]

Thanks to all who replied! I understand now, the feature is mainly to
ensure that you don't unplug the device while it is writing, reading or
performing any other function. I was worried it may have corrupted
something in the registry or OS.

No, it will never damage anything in the system: as it is said already,
you can lose the information only on such removable device in this case.

I don't get the "Safe to remove hardware" message with my scanner
though, is this just with devices that read and write data? It's not with
every USB device correct?

Yes, you are correct with this conclusion.

Though Sometimes other *specific* USB devices require this action, like
my USB infrared device -- but most likely that is done because of it is
need to be sure that all the processes of the information exchange
between two devices are closed properly.

Thanks, and Happy new year!

You are Welcome -- and Happy New Year, too!
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.

<...>

 

[Rocky]

Thanks to all who replied! I understand now, the feature is mainly to
ensure that you don't unplug the device while it is writing, reading or
performing any other function. I was worried it may have corrupted
something in the registry or OS.
I don't get the "Safe to remove hardware" message with my scanner
though, is this just with devices that read and write data? It's not with
every USB device correct?
Thanks, and Happy new year!

 

[Mikhail Zhilin]

Rocky,

My reply to your same message I see and now (I loaded the latest
messages in OE instead of my usual Agent: did 'Tools -- Get next XXX
Headers' in OE menu), dated Thu, 30 Dec 2004, 10:28:17 Moscow time (30
Dec 2004, 07:28:17 GMT)

It is Year 2005 in Moscow now already.
Happy New Year!
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======