Is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them off?

I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
off?
I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
time.
Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?

Thanks.


OM

"OM" <om.newsgroup@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1122204380.965009.249400@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
> off?
> I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
> I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
> time.
> Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?
>


to prevent data loss...
you need to unmount the drive properly through the USB device icon.

as far as the AC power...once the device is unmounted properly
that should not matter

On 24 Jul 2005 04:26:21 -0700, "OM" <om.newsgroup@gmail.com>
wrote:

>I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
>off?

yes

>I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
>I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
>time.
>Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?

no

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:49:41 GMT, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

>On 24 Jul 2005 04:26:21 -0700, "OM" <om.newsgroup@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
>>off?
>
>yes
>
>>I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
>>I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
>>time.
>>Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?
>
>no

The point is, that although the harddrive by itself will survive
hot swapping, your data might not :-)

It is only safe to switch off when all data destined for that
drive is properly written.
And the only way to get there is 'unmount' and patience :-)

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

"Gerard Bok" <bok118@zonnet.nl> wrote in message
news:42e3a2a4.4412127@News.Individual.NET...
> On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 13:49:41 GMT, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:
>
>>On 24 Jul 2005 04:26:21 -0700, "OM" <om.newsgroup@gmail.com>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
>>>off?
>>
>>yes
>>
>>>I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
>>>I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
>>>time.
>>>Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?
>>
>>no
>
> The point is, that although the harddrive by itself will survive
> hot swapping, your data might not :-)
>
> It is only safe to switch off when all data destined for that
> drive is properly written.
> And the only way to get there is 'unmount' and patience :-)
>
> --
> Kind regards,
> Gerard Bok

If you look at the properties>policy settings (in XP) for a USB disk you can
either choose to optimize for performance or quick removal (the latter
allows you to disconnect the device without using the 'safely remove HW'
feature.

BillL

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 19:24:40 GMT, "BillL"
<billc1@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:


>If you look at the properties>policy settings (in XP) for a USB disk you can
>either choose to optimize for performance or quick removal (the latter
>allows you to disconnect the device without using the 'safely remove HW'
>feature.
>
>BillL
>

True, you don't have to cache removable media. If it's not
cached, you don't ever have to unmount it, merely use any
"normal" drive enclosure that has the activity LED and wait
till it stops (showing activity). I use removable media
all the time and would never want to have to go through MS's
silly unmount procedure every time. Seems not as bad for
large HDD jobs but it's a similar scenario with any type of
removable storage device.

<snip>


> If you look at the properties>policy settings (in XP) for a USB disk you
> can either choose to optimize for performance or quick removal (the latter
> allows you to disconnect the device without using the 'safely remove HW'
> feature.
>


that's quite true...
but i'd say it would still be safre to unmount the volume...
if you had files open i suspect there could be a problem

"OM" <om.newsgroup@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1122204380.965009.249400@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I was wondering, is it OK to unplug USB devices without turning them
> off?
> I have several USB hard drives (hard drives in USB cases).
> I just pull out the USB connection and reconnect to another PC all the
> time.
> Am I in danger of causing damamge to my hard drives?


Some USB devices, like hard drives, have the option to disable caching.
That way, when you yank the cable without first unmounting the device,
there is no data pending in the cache for a write operation. Otherwise,
you would lose the data pending in the cache because you never let it
perform its write operation.

--
__________________________________________________ __________
For e-mail, remove "NIX" and add "#LAH" passcode to Subject.
__________________________________________________ __________