Safely Remove Hardware-When is it OK not to use?

You run the risk (although small) of corrupting the data....in the case of the camera; if you downloaded the pics and cleared the memory, you can just pull it out....there's nothing to corrupt. A loaded drive would obviously be the opposite.

Ah, so it's a software/data issue, not a fried hardware problem...

As long as no data is being transferred . . . you are safe.

On top of what yraq had to say, there is also a tiny risk of causing actual damage to the device being unplugged. This is because USB ports have current running through them. Without 'stopping' the device there is the potential for current to spike or jolt as you pull out the connector plug. Not fun if it's a USB mass storage device you're removing. I like to play it safe...

Kinda reminds me of having to enter 'p' at the prompt to park our hard disk drives on old computers.

Ah, hardware & software issues.

Some of the comments remind me of all the hardware upgrades when the cats "help" & instructions said to be sure & wear anti-static wristbands, etc...

The only time I fried a USB stick was with someone else's comp's front ports which were wired incorrectly.

Hot-swapping them 'should' be incident free...

I find it annoying when I have to remove my external hard drive, and go to 'safely remove' it, but it says it can't be stopped. I wish there was a way to look up what's using the drive so I can stop it, so I can remove the drive. Yah?

Aimzzz, yeah I wouldn't worry about it too much - if we worried about all the risks we face every day we'd end up crying under the table in the fetal position. But it's worth knowing what the risks are.

Agreed

I find it annoying when I have to remove my external hard drive, and go to 'safely remove' it, but it says it can't be stopped. I wish there was a way to look up what's using the drive so I can stop it, so I can remove the drive. Yah?

I have a proggy here somewhere that'll fix that....I'll hunt it down [link it]...

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Give that a try....works with files, etc....should work with drives [I imagine]...

Thanks for the link, Jafo. I've been thinking about a search for such!  

Thanks a lot for that link, Jafo. I've had the same problem as Adamness with my External HD.

You can select in the properties of that drive to be able to remove without using "safe removal" there are two settings optomise for quick removal or optomise for performance ,the latter is why you can't remove as write caching is enabled,to change right clik on the drive ,select properties,clik on harware tab,clik properties and the settings are self explanetary.
On occasions i will get the can't remove thingy for my ext hdd (which is selected for quick removal)but i just turn it off anyway and have had no data loss or probs with mother board frying,i'm running xp so i assume 2000 will be the same,don't know if earlier OS's can do the same.

Disclaimer: don't blame me if you loose data your on your own if you choose to do what i do