Why you should ALWAYS eject a USB stick rather than just pulling it out
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Loading... - Nuria Ramos
- 13 Mar 2021
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How many times do you yank out a USB stick before properly ejecting it from your computer?
For most of us, it's pretty much standard.
But not ejecting a thumb drive from your computer may be more serious than you think. And it's not just about avoiding that snotty pop-up that reminds you every time you do it.
According to one expert, waiting that extra 30 seconds to safely disconnect a USB could be vital for saving your previous files and photos.
That's because all depends on your operating system and what your computer is using the USB stick for.
If it's just reading the files, then pulling it out suddenly may not be as dangerous - but there's still a risk.
"Symptoms could include: Lost data, corrupted filesystems, crashing programs, or hanging computers requiring a reboot," explained computer expert Phillip Remaker on Quora.
But if your computer is actually saving or writing something to the USB, it could be more serious.
"A safe removal executes the "soft unmount" needed to prevent any unexpected Bad Things that may happen if a program loses its access to media," explains Remaker, highlighting that in the older days of removable storage there was actually a physical mechanism that connected the disk and required a safe ejection.
"In the modern computer, many steps have been taken to defend against the capricious and careless removal of media. For example, Windows even introduced a feature called "Optimize for Quick Removal" makes sure data is written quickly instead of batched up and written efficiently," Remaker wrote on the site - which has seen over 30m views of his well-informed answers.
The final conclusion is while you don't necessarily need to safely eject all the time - it's a very good habit to get into.
