Removing Memory Sticks

[koster]

I had hoped that in Windows Vista this would be more straightforward, but no such luck - it's the same as in XP.

At the moment you're supposed to right-click, click "Safely remove hardware", find your device, click "Stop", click "OK", and then when it's all over close those windows.

It's quite common to have USB devices which are more or less permanently connected to a desktop (e.g. a printer) and ones which you remove all the time (memory sticks).

Am I missing something? Do most people go through this rigmarole or do you just wait until it's not busy and pull it out?

Is there a 3rd party add-on to simplify this?

I had the additional problem that when I installed fonts from a memory stick, Windows told me it was still in use by a program, whatever I did.

[terambulan]

When finished with work on memory stick I save it and pull it out. XP pings but it hasn't done my memory stick any harm. I do, for safety sake, download to CD though not immediately.

[B Rubble]

Don't pull a memory stick without safely removing it from your system I killed my 16gb simply by pulling it. NOT GOOD learnt my lesson.

[ACtheTROLL]

the spec for usb is hot plug - so just pull it out ... that's why most have the little flashy thing - and you have the right idea.

people always underestimate how long these devices take to do their thing - it's not windows .... it's and you'll never guess what I payed for this.... cheap sticks are cheap for a reason - the bigger the stick .... the more you can .... the longer it takes

I think b just pulled out before he'd finished - which is always messy

this will generally fix a misfire from premature withdrawal
http://files.filefront.com/HPUSBFWEXE/;8576665 ;/fileinfo.html

this is for memory sticks and USB in general
but personally .... if I've spent a lot on it .... I'd rather be safe

[koster]

Thanks -could you tell me what that link is? There's no description on that page, but it says something about Linux.

[ACtheTROLL]

It formats usb sticks - and recovers ones corrupted by unplugging

Uploaded by pendrivelinux