Unplugging USB drives

Greetings all,

P4 3.0 running XP Pro.

I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware" comes and
goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.

Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the systray?

Thanks,

Larry

[Lindsay]

USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and plug
in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
reconfigure itself automatically.

<larry> wrote in message ...
> Greetings all,
>
> P4 3.0 running XP Pro.
>
> I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
> disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware" comes
and
> goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
>
> Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the systray?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Larry
>
>

Thanks, but now I'm really confused. Why is it there if you don't need to
use it at all?


"Lindsay" > wrote in message
...
> USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and
plug
> in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
> reconfigure itself automatically.
>
> <larry> wrote in message ...
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > P4 3.0 running XP Pro.
> >
> > I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
> > disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware" comes
> and
> > goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
> >
> > Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the systray?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Larry
> >
> >
>
>

[Lindsay]

You got me there. I don't know. But trust me, you don't need it. The whole
idea of USB (firewire is the same as is most other devices) is you can just
'pull the plug' whenever you want. I'm able to take out my CDRW on my laptop
without telling Windows.

<larry> wrote in message ...
> Thanks, but now I'm really confused. Why is it there if you don't need to
> use it at all?
>
>
> "Lindsay" > wrote in message
> ...
> > USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and
> plug
> > in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
> > reconfigure itself automatically.
> >
> > <larry> wrote in message ...
> > > Greetings all,
> > >
> > > P4 3.0 running XP Pro.
> > >
> > > I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
> > > disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware"
comes
> > and
> > > goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
> > >
> > > Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the
systray?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Larry
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[Ron Sommer]

By "at any time", I hope you don't unplug when the device is a drive and it
is being written to.
--
Ron Sommer

"Lindsay" > wrote in message
...
> USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and
plug
> in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
> reconfigure itself automatically.
>
> <larry> wrote in message ...
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > P4 3.0 running XP Pro.
> >
> > I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
> > disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware" comes
> and
> > goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
> >
> > Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the systray?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Larry
> >
> >
>
>

[Lindsay]

Heavens no! Always wait til the device in not being used. I should of said
that befire. Sorry.

"Ron Sommer" > wrote in message
...
> By "at any time", I hope you don't unplug when the device is a drive and
it
> is being written to.
> --
> Ron Sommer
>
> "Lindsay" > wrote in message
> ...
> > USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and
> plug
> > in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
> > reconfigure itself automatically.
> >
> > <larry> wrote in message ...
> > > Greetings all,
> > >
> > > P4 3.0 running XP Pro.
> > >
> > > I'm using a couple of USB "Jump" drives, and I'm having an issue with
> > > disconnecting them. The systray icon to "unplug or eject hardware"
comes
> > and
> > > goes, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
> > >
> > > Where do I find the "safely unplug" command if it's not in the
systray?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Larry
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>

[Alex Nichol]

Lindsay wrote:

>USB devices are known as "hot-pluggable". This means you can unplug and plug
>in devices at any time. You don't need to use the icon. Windows will
>reconfigure itself automatically.

The point of the 'safely remove' icon is to allow you to ensure that
there is no data transfer in progress when you pull the plug, which
might leave a piece of software hanging waiting for an acknowledgement.
If it is not around you can exercise judgment to ensure that nothing
*is* going on - if you for example have an Explorer window open on it,
close that


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)