Working on a computer via the USB interface, a windows user often encounters the problem of the safety and integrity of information contained on a USB flash drive. The Safely Erase function allows the operating system to gracefully terminate all processes associated with the USB drive and remove it without the risk of damage or loss of data.
A tiny flash drive today is one of the most common electronic storage devices for a huge amount of information. Flash memory storage devices are widely used for electronic data interchange, storage and backup of computer files. There are not only personal documents, music, photographs, films, but also confidential information (passwords and codes, EDS keys). Any loss of such a carrier, be it loss or theft, is serious damage to the owner.
It is no less annoying when a flash drive turns out to be a "bat" if it has been banally used incorrectly. Most often, damage and loss of data occurs as a result of the fact that at the end of the work, the user incorrectly removes the removable media from the computer. So, the risk of "screwing up" a USB flash drive is great, for example, for drives with the New Technology File System (NTFS) when using them without activating the "safe removal" function. Sometimes the memory device is damaged due to inaccurate handling.
Three rules for maintaining the operability of removable media
Flash drives have replaced floppy disks due to such qualities as speed, large capacity, low power consumption, quiet operation, miniature size, durability and reliability. But “nothing lasts forever under the moon,” and this device also has a period during which it develops its resource. According to experts, a flash drive can provide about 5000 rewriting cycles (for most memory chips) and withstand at least 1500 USB-connector connections until a complete failure is achieved. But these are indicators of the so-called natural physical wear and tear. Drives lose their performance much earlier if the user does not follow the basic rules of their operation:
- Avoid mechanical stress! Do not drop, do not expose to strong vibration and shock, keep away from dirt and dust.
- Do not wet! While remaining functional over a wide temperature range, removable flash drives are resistant to moisture ingress.
- Avoid exposure to electronic components! Flash drives are protected from magnetic fields, but sensitive to radiation and electrostatic discharge. A bad computer power supply, as well as bad connectors, is the reason for burning removable media.
The key to long-term operation of the flash drive is also its correct removal from the USB port of the computer.
Three ways to safely remove a flash drive
Safely Remove is used by the Windows operating system to prepare attached USB devices for disconnection. Technically, the process for safely stopping work is as follows:
- OS flushes all data to disk from cache and memory;
- OS informs all programs that the disk will disappear now;
- The OS warns that some "deaf" programs have not finished anything themselves and have not saved anything, the user needs to do it for them;
- The OS makes the device inaccessible to other programs.
Until the device is safely removed, the computer has free access to it. And under some circumstances, the system may try to continue recording data at the time of retrieval.
There are three ways in which a USB flash drive can be safely removed from a computer's USB port. The first two use standard Windows tools, the third uses special software. Any of them is based on a single principle: first, the flash drive is removed in the system, and then physically removed from the connector.
Method number 1 - using the tray menu of the Windows system area.
When external equipment is connected to the computer, the corresponding icon appears in the notification area on the taskbar (bottom right, next to the clock) - a USB flash drive with a green checkmark. If a drive is inserted but there is no symbol, then it is hidden. It is necessary to click on the arrow "display hidden icons" and in the sweep, among other external devices, find a "flash drive with a green checkmark." Right click once on "Safely Remove Hardware and Disks". Select the required flash drive from the list of connected drives. After that, wait until a system notification appears on the screen stating that the equipment can be removed from the USB port.
Method # 2 - when the drive eject utility is not visible in the tray.
From the desktop or from the "Start" menu you need to go to "My Computer". Here you can see both system drives (C and D) and all connected devices (I, E, G, etc.). Place the cursor on the shortcut of the desired flash drive and click on it once with the right mouse button. In the drop-down menu, select the "Extract" item. When the work to save the data is completed, the permission to remove the device will appear in the lower right corner of the screen. In this case, the flash drive sign will no longer be displayed in My Computer. It is also possible a system message that the device is still in use. In this case, you need to close all documents, file managers and programs working from the flash drive, and repeat the procedure again.
Method # 3 - if none of the above-described standard methods helped, or the corresponding Safely Remove icon disappeared from the computer.
This requires additional software to be installed. Typically, the USB Safely Remove utility is used. This is a shareware program that is freely available, one of the functions of which is to detect all devices connected to a PC via a USB slot.
After installing USB Safely Remove on your computer, its shortcut will appear in the system notification area - a green arrow in the form of a flash drive. By clicking on it, you can see a window with a list of all detected devices that are connected via USB ports. Also shown are those that are not displayed either in "My Computer" or in the notification area. For example, a mouse, webcam, external sound card. Hovering over the desired flash drive, click once with the left mouse button. When the shutdown process is complete, a message appears in the bottom corner of the screen indicating that the device is allowed to be removed. Using the program, you can, referring to the properties of drives, assign hotkeys to safely remove frequently used flash drives, SD cards or external drives.
Thus, using any of the above methods of safe extraction, you can guaranteed to protect important files from disappearance and deformation, as well as preserve the performance of the flash drive.
Three tips for fans to pull out a USB flash drive
In principle, nothing prevents the user from urgently finishing work and suddenly pulling out the USB flash drive from the USB connector. For many, it even became a habit. In order to be firmly convinced that this kind of removal of the drive will not cause data loss, will not cause damage to the carrier itself and the system as a whole, you need to "exhale three times" and make sure of the following:
1. Work with files on the flash drive was completed and nothing was read from the media: all documents and folders were closed; any program is not running directly from the flash drive; Windows did not update her file system.
2. There was no active data transfer process - there was no copy or write window on the screen.
3. Windows did not use a lazy write script. For example, user caching is disabled.
If there are doubts about at least one of the listed items, you should make sure that the emergency pulling out of the flash drive did not entail negative consequences. Check the status of the device before further use, correct errors and save the USB flash drive using the following steps:
Connect the USB drive to the PC port and right-click on it → select the "Properties" item in the context menu and go to "Service" → in the "Check for errors" section, click the "Check" button → in the window that opens, click on the item Check and Repair Disk. After the system checks the USB flash drive, you can reconnect it to the USB port. And use it as before, without activating the "safe removal" function. As they say among confident users, "life is too short to spend it safely removing USB-devices."
Despite Microsoft's innovations, the essence of which is to control the removal of USB drives from the computer using "quick removal", windows-users will not be hindered by the habit of removing drives in safe mode. Especially if the data on an external medium, which is "like death" to lose. It seems like a reasonable compromise between laziness and common sense to recall the presence of a safe eject function in a situation where there is really something valuable on the external drive. The need for this action both in Windows 7 and in updates of the 10th version is also reported by the information service "micro-soft".
