How to remove USB. Safely Removing Your Device
Hello dear readers. Today we will talk about safe extraction USB flash drives from a computer or laptop.
Why is it important? Everyone knows that incorrect removal of flash drives or memory cards can lead to the loss of data stored on them. If you do not follow the instructions below, there is a high chance that your removable storage media may fail.
The most important thing you need to learn is to never remove the flash drive from your computer or laptop until you have removed it. You don't know how to extract it? Then I’ll tell you this now and show you in screenshots.
Method one: Go to " My computer" In the “Devices with removable media” section we find the shortcut to your flash drive. Click on it right click mouse and in the context menu that opens, select the command “ Extract».
Method two: Open the tray. We find a shortcut in it with USB plug and a green circle - click on it. will appear context menu, in which you need to click on the command “ Extract ***" Where instead of “***” there will be the name of your removable storage device.
Any of these methods works the same. After each of them, as a sign of confirmation of the successful completion of the extraction, the following message will appear in the tray:
Today, every computer user needs to be able to work with USB devices mi. This is a convenient way to store and transmit information. Technologies allow you to connect not only a flash drive to your computer, but also mobile device or a camera. An important element of working with USB is their correct removal. How to do this correctly on Windows 10 and why?
Why you shouldn't ignore Safely Removing Hardware.
This function is designed to disable access electric current to the removable device. And although many people do not consider it scary to pull out a flash drive without performing any actions, such a habit can lead to a number of negative consequences.
Firstly, such an action may lead to partial or complete loss of data located on the media, especially if this occurred during file transfer. Secondly, a short circuit may occur, resulting in the connected device being hopelessly damaged.
How to properly disconnect USB devices
Before you begin to safely remove your device, you should make sure that no applications on your computer are using anything saved on your computer. USB data. This applies to the player, photo and text editor. This will reduce the risk of seeing an error message when you try to disconnect the device.
Every time when removable device will connect, appears in the lower right corner of the desktop new icon. It will be there among a list of others active applications, the icons of which can be seen by clicking the arrow sign. Once the work is completed, you need to click on it and select the “safely disconnect the device” function. If both a phone and a flash drive are connected to the computer at the same time, then when performing the action you must specify which device is to be disconnected.
The second option is to go to the “My Computer” folder and find the name of your device in the list. Now you need to right-click on it and find the line “extract” in the list that appears.
Problem with universal volume
Sometimes, when removing a flash drive, the user may encounter the following situation: visually there are no programs connected to the device. But when asked to extract, a window appears asking you to disable all programs running on USB. What to do?
First you need to open the device manager. Go to the “my computer” folder and at the top of the window press the “control” key. A list will appear on the left in a new window, among the names of which will be the one you are looking for.
Now you need to determine which programs are using data from the USB device that needs to be disconnected, and disable them. Now you can try to safely remove the flash drive again.
Let's summarize: safe removal of USB is necessary not only for the safety of data, but to ensure the safety of both devices from short circuit. Windows Developers made this process as simple and clear as possible. You can remove a removable device either using the icon on the desktop or in the “my computer” folder. And if an error occurs during extraction, it can be resolved through the device manager.
The question is still relevant: is it necessary to use the option to safely remove the device before removing the flash drive from the computer. To find out what she thinks about it operating system, you can go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager.
Here we find the tab “ Disk devices", unfold it and right-click on our expensive flash drive (naturally, the flash card must be connected at this moment). From the menu that appears, select “Properties”.
In the window that appears, select the “Policies” tab. Here are options for working with a flash drive when it is disconnected.
As you can see from the screenshot, Windows has 2 deletion policies: by default, the mode is enabled quick removal, which involves removing the device at any time without having to use the option safe removal. The second mode uses data caching before writing, which increases performance, that is, in this case write speed to the device, but requires mandatory use of secure eject.
It turns out that if you do not change the extraction policy, you can remove flash drives without additional manipulations. Not really. The fact is that a flash card can work in different modes. For example, you simply copy some files from your computer to removable media. In this case, access to the flash drive will stop after copying is complete, but there are also situations when you work directly from the flash card. You can run the program from removable media, and here it is possible that the program writes some data to the media at some intervals. It may also be that some programs installed on the computer periodically write data to the flash drive. The easiest way to determine this is on flash drives with a light indicator for writing and reading data. It happens that it blinks at moments when it would seem that you are not doing anything with the removable media.
In any case, regardless of the policy used, it is recommended to remove the flash drive safely. This will avoid data corruption. In addition, the extraction process itself is carried out in literally 2 clicks and does not take much time.
This advice applies to both Windows and other operating systems.
Sometimes when you want to disconnect usb disk or flash memory card, operating Windows system may refuse you this by displaying a message stating that it is impossible to remove the disk due to its being busy. Or maybe you just don't like the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature found in the system tray. If you are looking for a simple and convenient way, then you can try alternative program open source that will allow you to quickly and safely disable usb drives, even in cases where Windows says it's not possible. It's about about free portable program entitled " USB Disk Ejector", which is specially designed for easier handling of USB drives.
Note: Although the Safely Remove Hardware tool is easy to use, using it may cause more than just the problem of not being able to remove the drive. We are talking about time delays. Opening a menu with a selection of USB devices can take more than a few seconds, so if you frequently remove drives, this behavior can be somewhat frustrating. Additionally, the tool does not support hotkeys for common operations (more on this later).
Note: As a fact, but no matter what Windows version you have not used, devices should always be safely removed. In most cases, of course, there will be no problems with quick extraction. But there is always a risk of data corruption, including table corruption file system, which can mean spending many hours of “pleasant” time recovering data.
USB Disk Ejector supports Windows XP and above, including 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The program does not need to be installed and you can run it from anywhere. Download the program and find the link to source you can visit the developer's website using this link. Zip archive with the program takes up about 1 MB and, in addition to the program, also contains html file with a description of the possibilities.
Note: Please note that all your personal settings are saved in a file with the cfg extension, which will be located next to the program. So if you want to add a program to your “always with you” toolbox, then before using the program on someone else’s computer, you should copy executable file in a separate directory, unless, of course, the settings were made for a universal case.
After launching the program, an icon with the program will appear in the system notification area (tray), so you will not need to constantly hold open window program, just minimize it to tray. Additionally, you can set it to open directly in the system tray in the Disk Ejector options. The main program window will display all USB devices and memory cards that are connected to this moment to your computer.
One of the most useful functions The program is the ability to configure hotkeys for ejecting disks based on criteria, as shown in the figure above (The configuration interface is located in the program options). Hotkeys can be assigned to eject USB devices based on drive letters, their names and other parameters. This is one of the incredible convenient ways organize fast and safe removal of disks. For example, if you have a pair of USB drives that you often remove, and they have fixed letters (see. previous advice how to make flash drives recognizable), for example, F and G, then you can configure the following key combinations “Shift + Alt + F” and “Shift + Alt + G”, respectively.
USB Disk Ejector also supports the use command line, card reader and specific settings conditions for removing USB devices.
Now, you will always have a quick and safe way remove usb drives in windows.
- Sigcheck program for checking Windows directories with multiple antiviruses
Technical Tips
Safe removal - how and why you need it it is safe to remove USB devices - this will be discussed in the article. Safe removal is provided for almost all operating systems. This is mainly necessary to ensure that there are no conflicts in the system, since the connected device may still be involved in some process. Also, unsafe ejection may lead to problems with the recorded data, since Windows caches the data when working with disks. This means that the data is stored in random access memory, waiting until there is a convenient opportunity for direct recording. But if at this moment you take out the flash drive until all the data is actually written down, then the system will naturally lose it, and the recorded file in the drive will be damaged. Safe Eject can prevent all of this by first checking to make sure all processes are completed before notifying you that the drive can be removed.
Many people, including the author of this article, never use the “”. In this regard, such users probably looked at a photo transferred from another PC using a flash drive, and did you find copies that were half or a third of the image? Or an archive that was copied from a flash drive when unpacking 
reports a CRC error, etc. Why does this happen? The files will be corrupted because they were writing to the file table, and the writing was not completed, naturally the damaged file will have the same weight and characteristics as the donor, but will be damaged. This sometimes happens when you remove a flash drive without using the “safely remove hardware” function.
Also, unsafe removal may result in malfunction of USB devices. If anyone had the pleasure of taking USB hard drive under warranty - the first thing they ask is: “How did you, dear fellow, disconnect your screw?” Scratching his neck... - well, how... so...
In theory, all modern portable hard disks, when the power supply is cut off while driving, they are able to park the heads automatically, so unsafe removal should not harm them. However, in practice, when the power is turned off while on the move, external hard drives may make strange sounds, which makes you wonder... What to do?
Secure extraction in one click
If you are using one flash drive or hard drive, then you can still go to the tray, click..., wait, stop,... but if you are actively working with flash drives, portable hard drives, card readers and other devices, this will not work. We need to automate the extraction process. 
Well suited for such purposes Safely program Remove, (you can download it below). Very good manager USB devices. The program saves your time and significantly expands the user's capabilities when active work with flash drives, portable hard drives, and other USB devices.
The new version of the program includes one important function - the ability to turn off the power to USB ports when devices stop on Windows Vista and Windows 7. As we know in Windows XP, when safe shutdown devices, the operating system also turns off the power to this port, and the flash drive LED goes out, and external drive stops rotating. And when you stop devices running Windows Vista and Win 7, the devices continue to work. That is, the flash drive continues to glow, but HDD rotate. Many people believe that the Safely Remove feature simply doesn't work. But this is not true, it works, but for unknown reasons Microsoft changed this behavior and starting from Windows Vista, turning off power to USB ports does not occur. The program provides a power-off function when removing it safely. You just need to mark this item in the program settings.
Another advantage is that the program can display clear device names. This allows you to turn off exactly the device you need!
This program is a convenient and reliable replacement for the standard “Safely Remove Hardware”. It makes life easier and saves time for those who have several USB, SATA, Firewire devices, and those who actively use them. The program provides Safe extraction in one click! All you need to do is simply move the mouse cursor to the icon in the system tray. Next, a convenient and beautiful menu stop devices! One click on the device and it is safely removed!
Main features:
Command line for safe extraction
Safe extraction in one click or hotkey
Autostart programs when connected or disconnected
Quickly find a device to remove
Convenient menu with pictures of devices
Correct device names and the ability to rename them
Removing individual card reader cards
Shows programs that prevent you from removing the device
Ability to hide unnecessary devices
Allows you to return the removed device back!
Safe removal in pictures
Download and install Safely Remove. The program is very easy to use!
After installation, a small program icon will appear in the tray.
Immediately after connecting the USB device, an alert window will appear in which the name of the device will be visible.
By hovering the cursor over the small icon in the tray and pressing just one click, you can safely remove the device.
If you double-click on the icon, the program itself will open and you can see all USB devices. Now let's assign hotkeys for our flash drive. Click the “Device Properties” button
In the window that opens, you can configure a lot of other things, but for the sake of example, I will only show how to assign hot keys. Check the box and select a combination. That's all. You can assign hotkeys to other functions of the program; to do this, click the “Change” link.
Here, after carefully studying everything, you can put the necessary combinations.
But what I wanted to focus on more is the excellent autorun function of programs. Here you can schedule programs to launch when you connect or remove a device. Such a program could be, for example Total Commander, which will open immediately after connecting the flash drive. Or, for example, winamp - very convenient, isn’t it?
If you know another way to organize a safe extraction, please write in the comments.