Tips And Tricks With Safely Removing USB Storage Media

It is absolutely paramount that you know how to safely disconnect USB storage devices from your PC, else it can result in the files getting corrupted and unusable.

In all honesty you should always use the safe-disconnect feature when removing a USB storage device from your PC because it eliminates the risk of bad file writes to the media.

If you simply pull a USB stick out of a PC, this is essentially the same as yanking out a CD-ROM while it’s being written to. You know that if you pulled a CD while a write was in process that it would absolutely ruin the disc. The same can happen with USB storage media.

How to safely disconnect a USB storage device from Windows is easy.

Windows XP
(the Windows Vista/7 method is listed after this one)

Look for the hardware icon with the green arrow in the system tray next to the clock:

Right-click this icon and choose to "Safely Remove Hardware," like this:

Choose the device you want to "stop":

Note: You may see several choices. If confused as to which to pick, choose the one labeled as "USB Mass Storage Device" and click the Stop button. You will then be presented with a list of currently connected devices, labeled by company name and model, like this:

The SanDisk Cruzer USB Device is the one connected that I want to stop. I highlight it and click OK.

Above: Windows XP notifies me I can now safely remove the device.

If using a USB stick, it’s now safe to remove. If using a USB external drive, you can now disconnect or leave it connected and power it off.

Windows Vista and 7
(there are more important notes after this method, be sure to read them!)

The icon in Vista/7 is different but performs the same function. It is easily identified by its green checkmark:

Right click the above icon and wait a moment for the eject menu to appear. When it does, it will look like this:

Compared to XP, Vista/7 will actually state the make/model of the connected devices, making it much easier to figure out what you want to disconnect. In the above example, I choose "Eject U3 Cruzer Micro."

Then I get my notification the device is safe to remove:

What if you have two or more USB storage devices made by the same company?

If you have two like devices made by the same company, this may cause some confusion when performing a safe-disconnect. For example, I have two Cruzer Micros. When they are both plugged in and I want to disconnect a specific one, I see this:

I literally have no idea which is which, other than by drive letter. This is not good.

I get around this by assigning volume names. One of my sticks is 2GB, the other 4GB.

I launch My Computer, highlight the stick I want to give a volume name to, then click Properties.

Above: I highlight the drive I want to assign a name, then click the Properties button at top.

(In XP this is performed by right-clicking a drive and choosing Properties.)

From there I land on the General tab. In the field at top I simply type in "2GB stick," click Apply then OK, like this:

When I perform the safe-disconnect method, I now see this:

As you see, the volume name shows up for the stick I assigned it to. Now I can pick the correct one to safely disconnect.

Were you to do this in XP, you will see your choices at the "Stop a hardware device" screen. This is shown above, and if there were multiple devices, the volume names would show up there.