"Safely Remove Hardware" icon in sys. tray

[Rusty]

What is the icon in the system tray called "Safely Remove Hardware" for?

Rusty

 

[Guest]

Well, I can tell you what I use it for.... I have a laptop with a CD Drive
that I can remove and insert a floppy drive. Before I remove the CD drive, I
click on the Safely remove hardware icon and it gives me a message when it's
okay to remove it. I'm sure there's a better explanation for this, but it'll
give you the general idea anyway.

 

[Cajunswabbie]

What is the icon in the system tray called "Safely Remove Hardware" for?

Rusty

If you have USB Storage Devices, such as External Hard Drive or CD/DVD
Recorder/Reader connected, you click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon
and choose which hardware you want to remove. When you click on the icon
you get a popup menu that states "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device -
Drive (your drive letter). Once you click the storage device you want to
remove, you can unplug the USB Cable with out corrupting any files. If your
storage device is busy, you will receive a message to that effect and tell
you to try later.

Cajunswabbie

 

[Stan Brown]

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 19:59:01 -0700 from patti

Well, I can tell you what I use it for.... I have a laptop with a CD Drive
that I can remove and insert a floppy drive. Before I remove the CD drive, I
click on the Safely remove hardware icon and it gives me a message when it's
okay to remove it. I'm sure there's a better explanation for this, but it'll
give you the general idea anyway.

Patti's explanation is a good one.

In general, you don't want to unplug a USB device while it's in the
middle of an operation. For instance, suppose you have a USB flash
drive ("memory stick") or an external hard drive connected. When you
drag a file to it in Explorer, the file won't finish writing
instantly.

"Safely Remove Hardware" lets you know that there aren't any
unfinished operations for that device.