Safe Removal of Hardware

[Guest]

When using a USB flash drive to transfer files between 2 systems, I cannot
get Vista "Safe Hardware Removal" tool to operate correctly. It recognizes
the flash drive, and when going through the Stop operation, it says it has
stopped, and gives the ok to remove hardware safely. The Flash drive is
still activated, and upon removal anyway, I get the error bleep sound. The
XP system works properly with the same flash drive. Is there a repair for
this problem?

This is a factory installed Vista Home Premium in a Gateway.

 

[Richard Urban]

I get the same action with all of my older USB thumb drives. It would seem
that there is built in programming in the drives that is not compatible with
Vista. I have not purchased a new USB thumb drive so I do not know if the
latest crop of drives act in the same way.

As long as I go through the motions you stated, I have never suffered from
drive corruption - so I am not worried about the default warning beep.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Guest]

Terry,

I've read that the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature is intended to keep
people from removing the device before the I/O functions are completed. Some
people remove the device before the read/write functions are completed, thus
losing data. If you're sure those functions are finished, I don't believe
there is a problem with removing the USB device.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Terry.

Use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) for this job. In DM's Graphical View,
right-click on the drive. Then click Properties | Policies, and choose
between Optimize for quick removal and Optimize for performance.

If you optimize for quick removal, then Vista will not cache the writes to
the device, so it is safe to remove it at any time, even immediately after
writing to it. Then you don't have to worry with the "Safe Hardware
Removal" tool at all.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Guest]

Thanks. Since these are fairly new thumb drives, I wasn't aware of a
difference. I have not had any problems because of the lack of being able to
stop the drive. I shall not worry about it then.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I do always wait until I am sure the items are completely up or down
loaded before removing the drive, so I will still continue to remove it even
though I get the usual admonishment from the Vista program. In fact for a
long time I was removing the drive from my other computers in the same way,
without stopping the drive with the tool. I was just being cautious.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I couldn't find the Disk Management file, so I will continue to
remove it the way I have been doing, by waiting for the drive to stop, then
removing it. I was just wanting to know why there was a difference in the
procedure between XP and Vista.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Terry.

Ever since it first appeared in Windows 2000, over 7 years ago, Disk
Management has been the tool to use to create, delete, format and otherwise
manage partitions on hard disk drives - the jobs that we used to do with
FDISK.com and Format.exe back in MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 days.. It also lets
us assign drive letters to HDD volumes, to CD/DVD drives, USB drives,
digital cameras, etc.

There are several ways to find the Disk Management snap-in to the Microsoft
Management Console (MMC). One way is to click Start | Administrative Tools
| Computer Management | Disk Management. But it's easier to just press the
Windows logo key and enter "diskmgmt.msc", then press Enter.

Spend some time exploring this utility, and its Help file. There's a LOT of
information here about how to manage and use hard disk drives and other
storage devices. It's so handy that I keep a shortcut to it in my Quick
Launch toolbar.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Guest]

Thanks R.C. It has been a long time since I used FDISK in the old 3.1 OS. I
haven't fired that one up since I had 98. I did follow the instructions you
gave this time, correctly and viola, the tool opened. I will definitely
check it out more thoroughly as time allows. This has been a most
informative place to get answers to "dumb" questions. I seem to have less
time to investigate items before giving up on them and asking for help.
Thanks again.
Terry D, Lubbock, Texas.