Short answer? Yes. Wait but why? You pulled it out like a bad tooth so many times and nothing went wrong. Why do you care now? What’s the worst that could happen?
Many bad things can happen, and it’s only a matter of time. Let’s see what awaits you if you just give it up, and why such bad things can happen.
How to damage USB drives by removal without ejecting?
How a USB drive and a computer interact with each other is surprisingly complex. First, the computer must supply power to the USB drive in order for it to work. The computer and the USB drive will then talk to each other to establish a connection. To do this, the correct drivers must be installed on the computer.
Today’s USB drives are fully automated, which means they can provide the necessary drivers for your computer. The computer then needs to understand what data is on the USB drive so that you can access it. The computer does this by reading the Master Boot Record (MBR) or Partition Boot Record (PBR) or directory structure on a USB.
All of this happens a couple of seconds before you start using your USB drive.
When using a flash drive, you may think that it is just reading files or every time you change something, it is immediately written to the drive. This is not true.
Changes still occur when reading files. The file metadata is modified by the system, for example, the date and time of the last access or last modification is updated.
Change happens in batches. You make a change to something, the change is first saved to a cache on your computer and then eventually written to a USB stick.
Also, other programs might be accessing your USB drive without you realizing it. If you have antivirus or antivirus software installed, it can scan your drive at any time.
Thus, at any time, even if you do nothing with the flash drive, your computer can use it. If you remove the USB drive during any of these events, you could damage your files or the USB drive itself.
But wait, that’s not all. When you remove the USB stick, the whole ceremony takes place.
Just like the computer and the drive have an introductory phase as above, they also have a goodbye phase where they last handshake, end the conversation, and then the computer disconnects from USB and stops supplying power to it.
If this does not happen, corruption can occur. Apparently, the computer and USB need to be closed at the end of their relationship. The power supply is also important. Have you ever turned off something from the wall and saw a small flash of electricity? The same can happen when you pull out the USB stick, and it can weld your disc. This almost never happens, but it does happen.
What’s the worst that could happen?
In the worst case, your USB drive will completely stop working. You can’t write into it, you can’t read it, it just doesn’t work.
It’s okay if that’s something you don’t care about, or if you have backups elsewhere. But let’s be honest, that never happens. This happens when you have important documents or are in a hurry to give a presentation with something on your USB drive. Never at a convenient time.
Fortunately, you may be able to fix the USB drive and data on it. Unless it was damaged by electricity when you pulled it out. It can happen.
Why doesn’t this happen all the time?
Windows has a feature called “Quick Uninstall” that usually prevents damage. The quick removal policy ensures that Windows keeps the USB drive in a state where it is ready to be removed at any time. By default, Windows uses the quick delete policy on USB drives.
However, this is not reliable. There is still a possibility that you will remove the USB flash drive while it is being written or used by another program.
The reason this doesn’t happen all the time is because computers are incredibly fast. In the time that you saved the file to your USB drive and then removed the disc, your computer had already written the file, drove to the cafe, drank a latte, and returned. There is also some luck.
How do I know I am using the quick removal?
Click the Enter Here field to search next to the launch button. Start typing Device Manager.
You will see Device Manager as one of the search results. Click to open it.
In Device Manager, expand Disk Drives and locate your USB drive. In this example, this is a Kingston Data Traveler 3.0 USB device. In your case, everything could be different.
Right-click your USB drive and select Properties.
In the device properties window, click the Policies tab. There, you will see if your USB drive is configured to use quick delete or performance boost. If it is not configured for quick deletion and you want it, select it and click OK.
How do I eject a USB drive?
Windows has 2 good ways to eject a USB drive so that it follows the necessary steps to safely remove it. You can eject the USB drive through the taskbar or in File Explorer. Let’s see how to do this.
Eject USB stick from taskbar
Click the USB icon on the taskbar. If you don’t see it, click the up arrow to display all items in the taskbar.
A small window will appear above it with a list of all devices connected via USB. Find the device you want to eject and click on it.
After Windows safely disconnects the USB drive, you will see the following confirmation screen. You can now safely eject the disc.
Eject USB stick in Windows Explorer
Find the USB drive you want to eject in File Explorer and right-click it. In the menu that opens, click “Extract”.
Wait a couple of seconds and you will see a confirmation pop-up next to the clock in the taskbar. Now you can safely remove the USB stick.
Will USB drives take out now?
Admit it, even if you now know more about ejecting USB drives than you ever wanted and how things can go badly, you’re probably not going to eject drives. Or will you?
Maybe one day you will be working on an important work project. Pause before unplugging the USB stick. With this article in mind and the fact that something goes wrong in the worst of times, you may be removing the USB stick. Just in case.
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