Safely Remove Hardware

[Vandiyan]

I just noticed an icon in my system try that is the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon. Is this an icon that is always there and I have never noticed it? Thanks.

 

[bullzi]

yes its normal, usually when you have an ipod or storage device on your usb port AKA plug and play devices and you unplug them without the computer saying its safe or using this feature, you run the risk of corrupting the files on that device or ruining the formatting, something to that extent

 

[Vandiyan]

Well I probably should have said this in my original post but the hardware that comes up when I click on it is my main HD. I did have a bluetooth dongle on one of my USB ports but it is not there anymore.

 

[mammikoura]

yeah it's for removing external storage devices. I think it kind of like shuts down the device, like with external hdd's the disc stops spinning. Not 100% sure about that, but it's something like that.

And it's there only when you have an external storage device plugged in.

edit: ok, that is weird. Your main hdd plugged in with IDE or SATA or something else?

 

[Vandiyan]

It is a Serial ATA HD.

 

[bullzi]

weird

 

[Vandiyan]

Here are pics of what I am seeing.

 

[DJ-CHRIS1]

Thats completly normal

SATA drives are hot swappable so you can plug them in while your computer is running.

 

[Raffaz]

Yep its SATA, perfectly normal. The main reason you have safely remove hardware, is because most people use drive caching, so if you unplug the drive while data is stored in the cache, then there will be data loss. This can be disabled in the drives properties tho.

 

[ace777]

I had a mini 512 USB memory stick unplugged with out shutting down with that and it fried.