• USB Annoyance Busters and Tips

    USB Annoyance Busters and Tips

    Nikhil Rastogi, Mar 10, 2008 1300 hrs IST

    Everyone loves USB; it's the perfect plug-n-play. But what happens when it turns into plug-n-pray? Fret not, read on!

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Should I remove a USB device when it doesn't seem to be safe to?

Almost everyone has faced this problem, and it is by far the most common as well as the most annoying one in the context of USB devices. Vista doesn't solve this either. Too many of you have tried to eject a USB device only to find that Windows brings up an error saying it cannot be stopped.



While there is no clean-sweep solution, some of these suggestions might help.

Close applications, not just files
If you were working off a USB device directly -- as in a spreadsheet or an installation -- only closing the program completely will help. I generally copy the file to the hard drive and then work on it, which prevents these messages.

In the case of installations, it can be a bit tricky, because the Windows installer service sometimes keeps running in the background. It's called msiexec.exe, and refuses to let you eject the drive.

Do a Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up Task Manager, click on the Processes tab, locate the process, and end it. Be careful though -- your installation should not be running when you do this.

Shut down the computer
This is perhaps the obvious way: shut down and remove the device. Of course, it's the longest, most time-consuming, and also the most annoying method.

Yank the thing out
Perhaps I shouldn't be recommending this, but in some cases, you can just yank the device out. Yes you heard me right -- just unplug it. If you're damn sure you're finished with it and that no data is being written to it, go right ahead and use your common sense. You don't have the time for Windows to get intimate with your Flash drive!

Be careful with some devices
With NTFS drives such as external HDDs, you ought to be careful. These drives can have aggressive write caching enabled, which should be turned off. Most will not have this option on by default, but check it anyway.



To check for this, open the Device Manager and click on Disk Drives. Locate your external USB device; right-click Properties. Go to the Policies tab to view the options.

Use a program
The last and most expensive option is to use USB Safely Remove. Yes, there's actually a program that helps you safely unplug USB devices.



The application itself is really good; you can view any processes that may be stopping the USB drive from becoming safely ejectable, you can use the command line interface to stop processes, enable a hotkey to do that for you, and you can even customize it. This piece of software costs $20, that's around Rs 800 just to remove a USB device. Oh well, this ought to have been an inbuilt functionality of the OS in the first place, and I know I'm being silly recommending that you spend 800 rupees for being able to safely remove a USB device. But then again, I should mention the software, because some of you out there have expensive devices that you can't risk damaging.

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Discussion Board
(18) Comments
Keshav
,Dublin, on Mar 16, 2008 05:36 PM
I fully agree with this article but i would like to know how to really repair the usb stick when i already lost everything on it .... as it is now not even giving any signal .....thanks
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bpr
,Bangalore, on Mar 15, 2008 06:16 PM
One of the very good articles in a long time. Didn't know there is a software exist for ejecting usb device...
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vijendra
,Mumbai, on Mar 12, 2008 03:12 PM
good
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RIcky
,Surat- Gujarat- India, on Mar 12, 2008 09:14 AM
hye i have motorola w230 phone, i want to use my usb port as charger. can i do this stuff with using any software? help me.....
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Dr. K. A. Rashe
,Manjeri, on Mar 10, 2008 08:59 PM
Some of the USB devices are to be plugged into 2 USB ports.I understand that one of these is for power. But I do not know which is which? Can any one help me ?. Another doubt is about external power source for a USB device. Some devices do show a port to connect an external power, but they do not provide one OE. What is the alternative? Can I use my Nokia mobile charger for the purpose?
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Sukhoi
,Moscow, Russia, on Mar 11, 2008 11:47 AM
First of all there is myth here. Many users think there are only USB 2 ports on the motherboard, presently modern motherboard come with 12 USB ports (2.0)! Next point is any USB port could be used to draw the power, say to charge an iPod connected by USB cable. But, this USB power should not be confused as a power source for external devices AND it's not recommended to strain your motherboard's USB subsystem in that fashion. I don't you recommend you doing this, exceptions like on emergency only. So you may use Nokia Mobile USB charger, but don't make it as habit.
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Ashish
,Noida, on Mar 11, 2008 10:34 PM
To power a device from 2 USB ports you need a y splitter USB cable which is mini USB at one end and a pair of normal USB connector at the other end. The mini USB goes into your device while the normal USBs go to your PC's USB ports. Now if you want to recognize which one is for data+power then connect only one USB connector first`. If your computer detects the device then it is the one with Data+power. If the device is not detected then remove first USB connector and plug the second connector. Now your device should be detected and this second USB is the Data+Power connector. If your device is not able to be detected with just one USB connector then I think it does not matter which one is data+power and which one is power only because you have use both anyway:-) My experience says that USB 2.0 ports can power devices with one USB port while you need two USB 1.1 ports to power the same device. One more thing! If two devices use same kind of power jack it does not mean that the power adopter for one device can be used for the other. If the power rating and polarity of the two devices are same only then you can use the same adopter for both of devices...
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Sunil Sharma
,N Delhi, on Mar 10, 2008 03:44 PM
quite informative, any clue about doing in Vista
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RAJ
,mumbai, on Mar 10, 2008 01:46 AM
I think we do not need to restart our pc to apply changes. Just kill the explorer process from task manager. And start it again. Done no need to restart.
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viv
,bangalore, on Mar 10, 2008 03:14 PM
a better option would be to put the comp on standby and then pull the usb device out ... this will ensure that there is no data transfer and it is a lot easer than shutdown and restart process
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Prakash Wadhwan
,Muscat, on Mar 10, 2008 02:50 PM
I use an SD Card in a Simpletech USB Card Reader (which looks like a flash drive), so whenever I'm installing Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware software in a client's PC, I slide the write-protect notch of the card to the Read-Only position. Works a treat !! But yes ... wish they had those for regular flash drives too.
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Sukhoi
,Moscow, Russia, on Mar 10, 2008 12:30 PM
Your write up is OK, should have added few more interesting tidbits like: 1) USB device compatibility issues with 1.x and 2.0 based motherboards. Example Apple iPod or Digicam with 2.0 ports but hooked onto an old Motherboard say Intel 810e board which has 1.x USB support. 2) This is very important: USB devices on Linux. Say how to use autofs, mount and umount tools etc with various devices like flash drives, hard drives etc. 3) USB devices basic trouble shoot: Please note that ALL devices are NOT same. Force mounting a device could be disastrous while transferring your data or for the data integrity itself. Emphasis on this point is very important. 4) USB device identification: How to users know whether a device has 1.x or 2.0 or both support from the OS? This would be useful for the users, explaining with the help of Device Manager. 5) USB Booting: This is for advanced users. Say how to solve 1.x / 2.0 problems USB booting with my favorite Puppy Linux :)
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Vishal_Kadakia
,mumbai, on Mar 10, 2008 01:10 PM
thats what i meant for newbies and that its 2 basic
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Vivek Subramani
,Mumbai, on Mar 10, 2008 11:41 AM
Very informative article. Keep up the good work!
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Pranob
,Kolkata, on Mar 10, 2008 10:14 AM
Very helpful and quite informative and also well written article ! Pranob
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N.P.Rao
,RAJAHMUNDRY, on Mar 10, 2008 07:40 AM
Well written article. But in my system, the USB Pen Drive is not shown in " MY COMPUTER", though listed in the Device Manager. Please suggest the remedy
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Nishanth
,Chennai, on Mar 10, 2008 12:16 AM
A very helpful and well written article !!! Keep up the good work Nikhil.
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Vishal_Kadakia
,mumbai, on Mar 09, 2008 10:24 PM
hey still this stuff is basic but for newbies or non techies, maybe they wanna bookmark this stuff.....good one....
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