All-in-One Card Reader : Safely Remove Hardware

[Richard Roseweir]

Using WinXP SP3 Home Edition and onboard ISTAR AC-108 4-slot "All-in-One"
USB Media Card Reader.

Since I am inserting a single Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO) card (ex digital
camera) into only one of the slots in the card reader, is it necessary to
use the Safely Remove Hardware utility when removing this single card after
transferring the image files to the hard-disk?

The reason that I ask is that, when I do, all four drives assigned to each
of the 4 slots (and seemingly, the whole "All-in-One" Card Reader) are
removed / uninstalled from my computer and are not available for use until
after restarting Windows.

(Note that each of the 4-slots (4-drives) associated with the "All-in-One"
Card Reader are optimized for Quick Removal by default. Also, except for
mouse and keyboard, no other USB devices connected.)

Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada

 

[Tim Meddick]

Richard,
As long as you make sure that you don't pull out a card right in
the middle of a read / write operation and give it a minute after such an
operation before removing it, it should be fine. You have done exactly the
right thing in configuring the [whole] card reader for 'quick removal' and
nothing more is necessary.


==



Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Paul]

Using WinXP SP3 Home Edition and onboard ISTAR AC-108 4-slot "All-in-One"
USB Media Card Reader.

Since I am inserting a single Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO) card (ex digital
camera) into only one of the slots in the card reader, is it necessary to
use the Safely Remove Hardware utility when removing this single card after
transferring the image files to the hard-disk?

The reason that I ask is that, when I do, all four drives assigned to each
of the 4 slots (and seemingly, the whole "All-in-One" Card Reader) are
removed / uninstalled from my computer and are not available for use until
after restarting Windows.

(Note that each of the 4-slots (4-drives) associated with the "All-in-One"
Card Reader are optimized for Quick Removal by default. Also, except for
mouse and keyboard, no other USB devices connected.)

Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada

If you want an experiment to try, maybe "devcon rescan" will bring
them back without a reboot.

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.php

DEVCON package from Microsoft. Open a command window, and cd to
the folder it is in, to use it. You might even be able to
make a shortcut icon to it, with "devcon.exe rescan" in it.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272

For some background, on when WinXP is caching or not, for a storage
device, this link is good.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

And the troubleshooting link is here, for future reference.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Paul

 

[Anna]

Using WinXP SP3 Home Edition and onboard ISTAR AC-108 4-slot "All-in-One"
USB Media Card Reader.

Since I am inserting a single Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO) card (ex digital
camera) into only one of the slots in the card reader, is it necessary to
use the Safely Remove Hardware utility when removing this single card
after transferring the image files to the hard-disk?

The reason that I ask is that, when I do, all four drives assigned to each
of the 4 slots (and seemingly, the whole "All-in-One" Card Reader) are
removed / uninstalled from my computer and are not available for use until
after restarting Windows.

(Note that each of the 4-slots (4-drives) associated with the "All-in-One"
Card Reader are optimized for Quick Removal by default. Also, except for
mouse and keyboard, no other USB devices connected.)

Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada

Richard:
Although I haven't worked with your particular model of card reader I have
worked with quite a few different models and I can't recall ever coming
across a similar situation as you describe.

There's no reason that I'm aware of why removing a memory card from one of
the USB slots should cause the device to be (in effect) uninstalled from the
machine and only detected upon a reboot.

I assume you've tried both the "Optimize..." and "Performance..." options
with the same results.

Anyway, try this...

After removing the memory card and the device (as it were) disappears, in
Disk Management click on the Action menu item and then the "Rescan disks"
option. See if that "resurrects" the device with all memory slots shown.

You might also want to check with the manuf. or distributor of the device
about this.
Anna

 

[smlunatick]

Using WinXP SP3 Home Edition and onboard ISTAR AC-108 4-slot "All-in-One"
USB Media Card Reader.

Since I am inserting a single Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO) card (ex digital
camera) into only one of the slots in the card reader, is it necessary to
use the Safely Remove Hardware utility when removing this single card after
transferring the image files to the hard-disk?

The reason that I ask is that, when I do, all four drives assigned to each
of the 4 slots (and seemingly, the whole "All-in-One" Card Reader) are
removed / uninstalled from my computer and are not available for use until
after restarting Windows.

(Note that each of the 4-slots (4-drives) associated with the "All-in-One"
Card Reader are optimized for Quick Removal by default.  Also, except for
mouse and keyboard, no other USB devices connected.)

Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada

You do not have to "Safely Remove" the reader just to remove the
"media" card. Right-click on the drive that has the media and select
"Eject."

 

[RJK]

One of the 3 1/2" bay camera card readers, connected to motherboard USB pin
header etc. (I have several brands in several PC's), in one of my PC's
causes an "Eject" option to appear on the right-click pop-out menu for the
drive letter that's currently asigned to that particular camera card/slot,
i.e. XP's safely remove hardware sometimes refuses to work until something
else has released the drive e.g. Windows Explorer, but, the "Eject" always
works, and that avoids removing the drive, and having to reboot to get
it/them back ! ..phew !

regards, Richard

 

[dadiOH]

Using WinXP SP3 Home Edition and onboard ISTAR AC-108 4-slot
"All-in-One" USB Media Card Reader.

Since I am inserting a single Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO) card (ex
digital camera) into only one of the slots in the card reader, is it
necessary to use the Safely Remove Hardware utility when removing
this single card after transferring the image files to the hard-disk?

The reason that I ask is that, when I do, all four drives assigned to
each of the 4 slots (and seemingly, the whole "All-in-One" Card
Reader) are removed / uninstalled from my computer and are not
available for use until after restarting Windows.

That's because that's what you told Windows to do...remove the hardware,
All you want to do is remove the media so just remove it. Just like a CD.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[RJK]

"...just remove it like a Cd..." is not a good idea for some older type
flash cards such as "Compact Flash," even when that drive is set for "do not
cache files/optimized for quick removal," and if "Eject" is available on the
right-click pop-out menu for that relevant flash drive - that should be used
....if available ... i.e. the camera card readers seem to vary in design

regards, Richard

 

[Richard Roseweir]

Good morning Anna,

Thanks for this suggestion. Seemingly, as per "dadiOH" below, the Safely
Remove Hardware tool is indeed removing (uninstalling) the entire
"All-In-One" Media Card Reader when I use it to "remove" the single Memory
Stick Pro card.

Unfortunately, Start > Programs > Admin Tools > Computer Management >
(expand Storage) > Disk Management > Action menu > Rescan Disks does not
find or resurrect the device or any of the 4-slots (4-drives) associated
with it after the Safely Remove Hardware tool is used.

In order to do so, WinXP must be restarted.

Will go with the EJECT tool recommended by the other respondents until I
hear back from the computer supplier and ISTAR.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Richard Roseweir]

Good morning everyone,

Thank you for your assistance. I will use the EJECT tool associated with
the Memory Stick Pro media card in the particular drive. This seems to work
without loss of the entire "All-In-One" device. Good enough for me at the
moment. Ejecting a single card rather than removing the entire device is
apparently the way to do it.

I better understand that yanking a media card is very different to yanking a
USB device which may be drawing an electrical power supply through the USB
connection.

I have attempted to contact the computer supplier and ISTAR for
clarification and am awaiting their replies.

Again, with many thanks everyone,
Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada.

 

[Richard Roseweir]

Hello there Tim,

Thanks for this confirmation. I was previously unaware that removing a
single media card from it's slot was not the same thing as a removing a
hardware device via the Safely Remove Hardware tool.

I am now intending to use the EJECT tool associated with a single media card
in it's particular drive AFTER waiting a full one (1) minute AFTER the file
transfer appears to have been completed.

Fortunately, I'm primarily playing around with family photos and video clips
rather than valuable or sensitive "commercial" data. But it's nice to know
anyway.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[smlunatick]

Good morning everyone,

Thank you for your assistance.  I will use the EJECT tool associated with
the Memory Stick Pro media card in the particular drive.  This seems towork
without loss of the entire "All-In-One" device.  Good enough for me at the
moment.  Ejecting a single card rather than removing the entire device is
apparently the way to do it.

I better understand that yanking a media card is very different to yanking a
USB device which may be drawing an electrical power supply through the USB
connection.

I have attempted to contact the computer supplier and ISTAR for
clarification and am awaiting their replies.

Again, with many thanks everyone,
Richard
Surrey, BC, Canada.

Yanking any USB drive, be it flash, hard drive and "media" (Memory
Stick) is not recommended. If any of these show up in "Safely Remove
Hardware," these can have data caching or "delayed writes" in their
"settings. With "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, you are telling XP to
completes all write and flush all "data" to the drive.

 

[BillW50]

In
smlunatick typed on Mon, 11 May 2009 10:37:19 -0700 (PDT):

Yanking any USB drive, be it flash, hard drive and "media" (Memory
Stick) is not recommended. If any of these show up in "Safely Remove
Hardware," these can have data caching or "delayed writes" in their
"settings. With "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, you are telling XP to
completes all write and flush all "data" to the drive.

But "Safely Remove Hardware" also disables card readers and PC to USB
cards too. Very bad if you have built in card readers which you can't
unplug. Then you have to reboot to get the device working once again.

Better is to open Explorer and on the drive you want to remove, right
click and choose Eject. All writes are written as well and you will get
a warning if you can't unplug it. And by using Eject, card readers, PC
Card to USB cards, etc. are still seen as active devices and you don't
have to unplug (if possible) or reboot to get them working once again.

See the difference now?

 

[dadiOH]

Good morning Anna,

Thanks for this suggestion. Seemingly, as per "dadiOH" below, the
Safely Remove Hardware tool is indeed removing (uninstalling) the
entire "All-In-One" Media Card Reader when I use it to "remove" the
single Memory Stick Pro card.

Unfortunately, Start > Programs > Admin Tools > Computer Management >
(expand Storage) > Disk Management > Action menu > Rescan Disks does
not find or resurrect the device or any of the 4-slots (4-drives)
associated with it after the Safely Remove Hardware tool is used.

In order to do so, WinXP must be restarted.

Or click on Add Hardware.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Richard Roseweir]

Good morning Bill,

I spent some additional time playing around with the Memory Stick Pro card
yesterday afternoon.

The EJECT tool, as you say, is now my preferred method of finishing the task
at hand and then safely extracting the card from the "All-In-One" card
reader device. When I first used the Eject tool, I actually expected the
card to be physically ejected from the card reader slot. How silly of me
eh! I sat there watching the card sitting there watching me doing nothing.

I shouldn't be too hard on myself though. My VCR machine ejects the tape
cassette. My CD player ejects the CD and my DVD-RAM drive ejects the disc.
Why should I then not expect the card reader to eject the media card?

Anyway, I think I now have a handle on this whole Safely Remove Hardware
thing. Still a tad amused as to the many differing opinions that I
encountered, even from the supplier of my computer and a techie at a local
computer repair facility. Seemingly Windows, in it's various forms, can
still function despite our manipulations of it. I'm therefore very grateful
for the assistance offered by yourself and the other posters in this group.

Thank you everyone!

Richard,
Surrey, BC, Canada