ALWAYS close USB flash drive before removing?

Rod Speed wrote:
David Brown wrote
Rod Speed wrote
David Brown wrote
Eddie wrote

Do I always need to close or stop a USB flash drive before I remove it?

I'm using XP. In XP's Device Manager there is an entry for Disk Drives and when I look at the Policies tab for the
flash drive, it says:

"Optimized For Quick Removal. This setting enables write caching
on the disk and in Windows, so you can disconnect this device
without using the Safe Removal icon."
My friends get upset if I don't use the Safe Removal process when
their USB memory is in my PC. Maybe they're repeating a mistake?

Or is there a reason which I'm missing that says I should always
use Safe Removal?

The main problem with removing USB drives without "safe removal"
(or umount on Linux) is that the OS could still have data in its
write buffers. If you remove the flash drive before the write is
complete, you will lose data, corrupting the file that is being
written, and possibly corrupting the FAT (and therefore lots more
of the flash disk). The "optimize for quick removal" makes windows
save as little in the write buffers as possible, minimising your
risks, but you are still risking data loss and file corruption.
The other choice is to store lots more in the write buffers - that
makes the flash disk far faster for writing, especially for writing
lots of small files, but means greater risk of corruption if you
don't remove it safely.

So you should /always/ use safe removal, unless you haven't written anything to the disk.

Thats just plain wrong. If you have it optimized for quick removal and its been a while since the write, its fine to
unplug it without safe removal.

That is true, but how long is "a while"?

Irrelevant to your stupid /always/ claim.

So how long is "a while"? If you can't quantify it you're just talking crap.

spodosaurus wrote:
Rod Speed wrote:
David Brown wrote
Rod Speed wrote
David Brown wrote
Eddie wrote

Do I always need to close or stop a USB flash drive before I
remove it?

I'm using XP. In XP's Device Manager there is an entry for Disk
Drives and when I look at the Policies tab for the flash drive,
it says:

"Optimized For Quick Removal. This setting enables write caching
on the disk and in Windows, so you can disconnect this device
without using the Safe Removal icon."
My friends get upset if I don't use the Safe Removal process when
their USB memory is in my PC. Maybe they're repeating a mistake?

Or is there a reason which I'm missing that says I should always
use Safe Removal?

The main problem with removing USB drives without "safe removal"
(or umount on Linux) is that the OS could still have data in its
write buffers. If you remove the flash drive before the write is
complete, you will lose data, corrupting the file that is being
written, and possibly corrupting the FAT (and therefore lots more
of the flash disk). The "optimize for quick removal" makes windows
save as little in the write buffers as possible, minimising your
risks, but you are still risking data loss and file corruption.
The other choice is to store lots more in the write buffers - that
makes the flash disk far faster for writing, especially for
writing lots of small files, but means greater risk of corruption if you
don't remove it safely.

So you should /always/ use safe removal, unless you haven't
written anything to the disk.

Thats just plain wrong. If you have it optimized for quick removal
and its been a while since the write, its fine to unplug it
without safe removal.

That is true, but how long is "a while"?

Irrelevant to your stupid /always/ claim.

So how long is "a while"?

Few seconds of no led activity and the Win transfer window gone.

reams of your puerile **** any 2 year old could leave for dead flushed where it belongs