Shut Down USB Storage Device?

[Deon H]

Hi there,

WIN XP PROF (SP2) and External USB Laptop Drive.

How healthy is it to just unplug the cable from the USB-port after I have
finished working on it? Or do I have to go the route to click on the little
green icon in my Sys Tray to Safely Remove USB Storage Device?

I'm asking because I think I just crashed by external HD by not following
this route - but on the other hand, I have just unplugged it many times
before without shutting it down first.

Regards,
Deon

 

[Guest]

Generally, you can plug/unplug most of the USB devices with no problems.
But when you do it to a hard drive (which is, after all, a MECHANICAL
device), you may brake it.

Good Luck!

 

[Deon H]

Generally, you can plug/unplug most of the USB devices with no
problems. But when you do it to a hard drive (which is, after all, a
MECHANICAL device), you may brake it.

Good Luck!

Thanx for the prompt reply. I had to re-format it and will know for the
future.
Sometimes though, when I wait for the HD to be shut down before it can
be removed, I get a message that I have to try later. I have tried to
wait but with no success.

Regards,

Deon

 

[Kelly]

Great question!

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...xm=12&as_maxy=2005&num=100&as_scoring=d&hl=en


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Shutting+down+an+External+USB+Laptop+Drive&btnG=Google+Search
--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Alex Nichol]

WIN XP PROF (SP2) and External USB Laptop Drive.

How healthy is it to just unplug the cable from the USB-port after I have
finished working on it? Or do I have to go the route to click on the little
green icon in my Sys Tray to Safely Remove USB Storage Device?

The SRH icon is to ensure that there are no transfers in progress, wait
till all is quiet and then notify you. At the hardware level you can
just unplug, but can then cause trouble by aborting a transfer

 

[Steve N.]

Thanx for the prompt reply. I had to re-format it and will know for the
future.
Sometimes though, when I wait for the HD to be shut down before it can
be removed, I get a message that I have to try later. I have tried to
wait but with no success.

Regards,

Deon

You probably could have just run CHKDSK /F on that drive and fixed the
file system errors rather than re-format it.

Steve