[Technical] safe removal of usb memory sticks

[Paul Williamson]

Hi Kevin,

It's best practice to use that icon, however a lot of the time any data
you tell the PC to save to the stick, will save immediately and once the
light has stopped flashing on the stick, it should be okay to remove.

If the computer gets caught-up doing other tasks and doesnt have time to
complete writing to your stick before you remove it, you will end up with
corrupted files.

I have found that memory-sticks with a lot of use will last around/about a
year - the usb plug becomes worn and can often break off the circuit board
inside the device - it may be an idea to replace it yearly for extra data
security.. Not half as bad as a floppies life cycle :-)

Just out of interest what was the specific error encountered?

Regards,

Paul Williamson
Network Administrator, Huntingtower School
http://www.huntingtower.vic.edu.au
paulw at huntingtower.vic.edu.au
Phone: 03 9831 9463
Mobile: 0433 167 247
Fax: 03 9888 1089



Ware, Kevin Ke said:
>
>
> Hi guys
>
> I have a questionabout the safe removal of memory sticks on a windows xp
> system.  Do you need to click the small icon on the taskbar to safely
> remove hardware.  After 1 year + of not following this procedure my memory
> stick has an error and has stopped working.
>
> Is this a coincidence?
>
> Kevin Ware
> Pakenham Secondary College



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