Why to remove your Pen Drive SAFELY from your computer?

Why?

As Pen Drive or UFD (USB Flash Drive) or MMCs (Multimedia Cards); all are instances of Removable Storage Media, they need to be removed after use. But the Unsafe Removal may cause loss of data. To make it sure that the data will not be lost after removal; we need to remove it safely.

Please don't take the word 'Safely' with pure hardware concern. The concept behind this is quiet different. Let me simplify it:

While writing any data onto the removable storage media, your Operating System uses an intermediate writing mechanism called as 'WRITE CACHING'. In this mechanism the data is first buffered onto the Storage Media (Since the data comes in chunks of different sizes) and when received in all, is written finally to the Media.

Unsafe removal may interrupt the final writing of data onto the drive (it may loss from the buffer).

While;

Safe removal lets the O/s complete its entire workout regarding the writing of data onto the drive.

How?

Simply complete your tasks with your Removable media and follow the following:

1. Click on 'Safely Remove Hardware And Eject Media' at the notification area of your task-bar.

2. Click on 'Eject Cruzer Orbit' (It may be somehow different for different removable media).

3. Your task-bar shows a balloon stating that your system is now 'SAFE TO REMOVE HARDWARE'. Simply click on the balloon and remove the media.