Janetb said:
At Device Manager>Disk Drives>[R-click on particular disk drive]>Policies
Tab, we can choose between Optimize-for-Quick-Removal or
Optimize-for-Performance. I would normally use the Safely Remove Hardware
Icon, so, on the on hand, I might as well take advantage of the Optimize
for
Performance option. But suppose a drive NOT optimized for quick removal
inadvertantly becomes unplugged, or if there is a power blackout---what
bad
things can happen? Can I be in danger of losing all the data on the drive?
And how much of performance improvement does the Optimize for Performance
option afford? Not clear on the disadvantages (possible consequences) of
each
of the two options. I don't know what write caching is.
Many thanks for input...!
Janet
Quick removal just means you can unplug without having to use the safely
remove device icon.
More useful for flash drives or small drives.
I'm not sure but I expect this method copies each file from the disk then
verifies it. This is slower to transfer as it has to read from source, write
to destination, read from source, write to destination etc.
Performance means faster transfer rates.
Useful for external HDDs or large capacity storage when transferring large
amounts of data in one go.
Write caching is when a large chunk of data is stored in a cache, (not sure
if this is the HDD cache, or a cache created in RAM, or from the pagefile),
then written to the drive in one go. It is faster as it can use the maximum
bandwidth for the transfer, but if the transfer fails all data in the cache
will be lost.
If you unplug anything, using any method while data is being transferred,
(surprise, surprise!), the transfer will fail.
If you aren't in a rush, and have no reason to believe your storage device
won't fall of the desk and become unplugged, then no reason not to use
performance. I expect most gains would be seen by using larger storage
capacity such as external HDD enclosures. I haven't measured it myself, and
it does depend on the chipset of your PC etc. You could run a test yourself
by trying both methods and timing the transfer.
Of course the flip side of that is, if you aren't in a rush you may as well
use quick removal mode, as it doesn't really matter time wise if the
transfer takes longer, so you can just unplug the drive when you are ready
to leave.
If you are using performance mode and unplug the device while it is not
being used nothing bad will happen. I'm inclined to think MS goes overboard
on the warnings sometimes, but then I meet users who do lots of stupid
things then blame the OS/car/toaster for their ignorance.
It may be possible to damage a mechanical drive, (spinning disk type
devices), or mess up the file system if the device is powered by the USB
port, but I think it is extremely unlikely it will be damaged by being
unplugged during a transfer.
As a general guide for flash drives, wait about 10 seconds for the file
transfer window to disappear , maybe do a refresh of the drive to check the
files exist on the device. It should be safe to unplug, regardless of method
you have used.
For external HDDs wait for the file transfer window to disappear and check
to see that the "in use/activity" light on the external drive is off, then
it should be safe to unplug or switch off.