Safely Remove Hardware "Quickly"

[Stryker]

I was "googling" around and managed to find something helpful for myself. Here's my discovery in case other find it useful too.

Specific to Windows XP, when you connect a "Plug-and-Play" device like a USB drive or memory stick, you get the icon in your system tray to "Safely remove hardware". This icon is to be clicked in order to stop activity/caching to the device before removal so data isn't corrupted. I don't know about everyone else, but I found this to be a bit of a pain.

Here's what I didn't know (although it says default is optimized for quick removal, I checked anyway just in case):
You can remove the need to perform this step...
• Connect the USB/Firewire device normally
• Open "My Computer" (no jokes about "your computer or my computer")
• Right click on the device in question and select Properties
• Click on the Hardware tab
• In the "All disk drives" list, select the device and click the Properties button
• Under the properties for the device, select the Policies tab (note: if there's no Policies tab, this procedure isn't an option for the device)
• Select the option "Optimize for Quick Removal"

Once this option is set, write caching is disabled and you can remove the device at will, without use of "Safely remove hardware".


If you're like me and want proof for everything you see, take a look here for the full article I used as a source for this info.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...h_dmt_cgwi.asp

Happy hardware removal!
Stryker

[peekaboo]

i'd like to revive this thread.

what's the point of not having the quick removal option enabled?

i've just set my external hd to quick removal and now i stick it in and out of my computers without waiting.

is it really safe? i'm less worried about damaging the hd and more worried about damaging my computer.

[Stryker]

Hiya peekaboo,

As I understand it, when Quick Removal is disabled the device uses "write caching". This allows slightly faster operation as files/items are cached in memory and this improves performance when trasferring and managing data on the device. Mind you, I've never noticed any measurable difference when write caching is disabled to allow quick removal.

I think the worst that could happen if you disconnect abruptly when write caching is enabled, you may corrupt a file or two. Never experienced this either though, but I always enable quick removal.

Hope this is a little helpful,
Stryker

[Kareeser]

Your computer or my computer?

Thanks, surprisingly, it was already applied to my USB drive. Now I'm thinking of all the wasted time pressing that little green icon...

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by Kareeser Your computer or my computer? Thanks, surprisingly, it was already applied to my USB drive. Now I'm thinking of all the wasted time pressing that little green icon...

There's one at every party...

As far as I've seen, it's always been setup for quick removal by default in WinXP. Just think of all the clicks you'll save now. It will save you hundreds of $$ over the next few years because your mouse will last much longer (I expect to see a heafty percentage of the savings by the way!).

[nin137]

I have that "safely remove hardware" icon in my taskbar and I've been wanting to get rid of it. I tried going about the route described above but wasn't able to get rid of it. Does anyone know how I may do this?

[Stryker]

Hey nin,

I don't believe you can completely get rid of the icon that appears in the system tray, but the
steps above will remove the need to use it. Just ignore the icon and disconnect the USB device. No need to use the icon anymore.

[nin137]

yeah, i couldn't find a way to get rid of it from the taskbar, thanks though!

[clroberts]

One of my coworkers actually removed the RAM out of the computer he was using while the computer was up and running, and then just stuck it back in there while the computer was powered up. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the computer actually still worked after that. Booted up and everything.

[corksil]

Wow, interesting concept. Quite interesting, I will be sure to do that to my USB JumpDrive. Thanks for the heads up!