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| Thread ID: 91325 | 2008-07-03 05:13:00 | Plugging a flash drive into a running computer. | worl (8599) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 684918 | 2008-07-04 00:10:00 | Well that may depend on whether it was writing to it, when you pulled it out. You may have been lucky, but I wouldnt do it too often, you'll end up with a corrupt flash drive, if you pull it out at the wrong time Yup! I may be daft but I don't think I am that daft. I would never remove anything if it was being written to or from. Funny how I have never even thought to use "safely remove hardware" but the grandchildren do - and I taught them! Anyway I thought I would try it today. So found it and clicked on it. Told me I could safely remove hardware from drive H I don't have a drive H At that point decided that life is like that and I should leave things severly alone. Tom |
Thomas01 (317) | ||
| 684919 | 2008-07-04 00:41:00 | I didn't know that. In 12 years of messing about with computers I have never used the "safely remove" thing. In fact I tend to just pull the devices out. My grandchildren barked at me recently for not doing the right thing but in fact I have never ever had a problem or lost anything doing this. Am I just lucky or what? Tom If you copied a file to the usb drive, if it was a small file, windows may sometimes cache it in memory, instead of actually writing the file to the drive. This can reduce wear on the drive (lots of little writes shortens the lifespan of the flash chip more than a few large writes), as well as improve the perceived responsiveness of the computer. In these cases, the file is actually only written to the drive when you click safely remove drive; any outstanding requests to write to the drive are completed, and when it is done, it will tell you. If you just pull it out without doing the safely remove thing, windows may not have had a chance to write the cache to the drive, so your files will not be on the drive. If you moved a file to the drive this way, your files are gone, as they are no longer on the disk, nor are they on the flash drive, but will be waiting for a convenient time to be written. It could be possible to access the place in RAM where you have stored those files, but I think inserting a drive clears the cache, im not sure on that one though. |
utopian201 (6245) | ||
| 684920 | 2008-07-04 04:29:00 | It's "good practice" to tell the OS before you remove these devices . However, you'll usually get away with it because OS writers know that users will do whatever is necessary to destroy data . To lose data you need to be quick and remove the divice while a file is still being written or before the device's directory has been updated . Linux writes cached information every 5 seconds . Windows "probably" does the same; I don't know . But it doesn't take long to tell the OS, and be pretty safe . |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 684921 | 2008-07-04 09:15:00 | If you copied a file to the usb drive, if it was a small file, windows may sometimes cache it in memory, instead of actually writing the file to the drive. This can reduce wear on the drive (lots of little writes shortens the lifespan of the flash chip more than a few large writes), as well as improve the perceived responsiveness of the computer. In these cases, the file is actually only written to the drive when you click safely remove drive; any outstanding requests to write to the drive are completed, and when it is done, it will tell you. If you just pull it out without doing the safely remove thing, windows may not have had a chance to write the cache to the drive, so your files will not be on the drive. If you moved a file to the drive this way, your files are gone, as they are no longer on the disk, nor are they on the flash drive, but will be waiting for a convenient time to be written. It could be possible to access the place in RAM where you have stored those files, but I think inserting a drive clears the cache, im not sure on that one though. ^^ This. Also when it said it was safe for you to remove drive H, it sounds like H was the letter given to the flash drive when you plugged it in. |
Faded_Mantis (79) | ||
| 684922 | 2008-07-04 23:19:00 | I guess I have just been lucky. As I have never had a problem I do not intend to alter my methods. To heck with the "safely remove' I shall live dangerously and ignore it. |
Thomas01 (317) | ||
| 684923 | 2008-07-04 23:46:00 | The flash drive\USB stick gets its 5v through the usb connection, if the safely remove function is not used, a spike could wipe the contents of the stick...... | SolMiester (139) | ||
| 684924 | 2008-07-05 23:00:00 | The flash drive\USB stick gets its 5v through the usb connection, if the safely remove function is not used, a spike could wipe the contents of the stick...... I do agree. But I have never had it happen to me. I do almost invariably check that any files I have moved have arrived. That is merely a check on me though rather than the equipment. I reckon that loosing stuff through not using the safely remove function is about as likely as being struck by lightning. Now there is a point. My modem was burned to a frazzle when we were hit by lightning some years ago. Gotta think about that. |
Thomas01 (317) | ||
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