Have you ever lost important data due to inappropriate removal of external drive? Windows doesn't allow you to stop a device? Accidentally stopped a drive you don’t aim to remove? USB Safely Remove solves these and other inconveniences of safe removal in Windows and offers much more features for convenient and secure work with external devices.
Seems still working, got my key, act fast.
since vista ive never had this problem, each to their own i suppose
i have had before, not good when you open a corrupted file and it's the only one…
Life's too short to remove usb safely.
ive NEVER in my entirelife have safely removed a usb and have never had a corupted file from that.
Careful there, wouldn't want to invoke Murphy's Law.
don't talk like that ive lost enough data
3tb worth when my counsin dropped my external hard drive.
ouch :-/
Same here.
I too haven't had this happen personally, however since seeing three completely failed USB drives recently I have decided to start safely removing my drives.
has never happened to me before a few weeks ago when a PC i removed it from totally corrupted the partition, luckily it was just my tools USB and had nothing irreplaceable on it so I just formatted it and made a new partition and copied them back on
It only seems to happen to me when I'm copying music over. An album of songs, all that seem to end after the boring verse, but just before the high pace chorus begins(the only part you know the words to).
Its like some kind of modern version of a chinese torture.
Space waster?
Just shutdown PC if cannot remove safely in windows.
no need to even shut down, i just put it to sleep will work.
no need to even shut down, i just put it to sleep will work.
Not if it's being used by a background process.
waste of an application sorry.
If you want to NOT have to worry, go into your drive properties and untick "Write Caching" expect a slowdown but always 100% safe to remove.
Never had my drive get 'stuck' in a computer, even if the remove usb option doesnt work, the 'eject' on the drive letter always does.
this. 1000 time this. it's standard windows functionality.
How is this a bargain, it's free to eject devices in Windows anytime, you don't need another piece of bloatware to replace what you already have. No deal here.
I'm going to have to agree with this. People, you really don't need this software on your computer.
I think that's harsh. Windows does not offer this feature and it could be quite handy:
"Unlike Windows, USB Safely Remove will show you the programs which prevent the device from being stopped and let you close these programs or just the files they opened on the device."
There's other features too in this program that Windows doesn't offer.
Windows 7 , as standard, closes of usb drives when its finished writing. They are always safe to remove
Ok, in case my post sounded harsh I'll elaborate:
-As has been pointed out by others, Windows has in-built mechanisms for handling the ejection of USB storage devices
-From what I can see on the site, the program itself hasn't been updated for over a year. Not necessarily a problem, but not a great sign either.
-If Windows is locking the drive, its usually for a good reason. As per belzecue's comment you can use free utilities like USBDEVIEW to find out what might be causing it
Programs like this are at best un-needed, and often cause more problems than they solve. I've lost count of the number of computers I've fixed where 'tools' like these have mucked things up.
If you are having constant issues with Windows locking USB devices, your computer has an underlying issue that needs to be fixed. Installing a program like this isn't the best option.
Because of Write Cache, Windows did not write to disk when your application said it did. Hence, need for Windows' "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" tool. To force unwritten data to disk, use free Sync.
Windows 7 , as standard, closes of usb drives when its finished writing. They are always safe to remove
What a stupid comment! If you have backup software consantly running, or the computer is IN THE MIDDLE of a backup (people who run CrashPlan or similar) they are certainly NOT always safe to remove!
I've on occasion forgotten that I'd forgotten I had a large file copying from a USB hard disk to a slow network drive, and nearly unplugged the drive before the copy was complete, as the copy window was minimised or hiding behind something else. Using safe eject reminded me that the drive was IN USE. I would have wasted hours or days re-doing all my work had I not done this. I was once tired and had to rush out of the office, but was angry that Windows kept telling me the USB hard disk was not safe to use - then I had to spend a while going through Process Viewer, and completely forgot that I had CrashPlan running in a background process. It's tedious.
For people who only use their computers for sharing small files, maybe it's not so bad. Some people do real work on their computers.
Many free utilities like USBDeview are very technical virtually impossible for a newbie to use, also they don't tell you what application or process is currently accessing the USB drive, or give instructions on how to force quit it.
@greenie4242: hey, I lost an arm removing a USB stick. Thanks OP for posting. Will go well with my balance braclet.
Windows would lock your USB from time to time even if you close everything. A restart is the only resort. This tool is actually quite handy for some.
As to everyone not seeing the value here, remember a bargain is one for some, but not for all.
There will be people that will benefit from deals from such places like Kogan, Koorong, Amazon US, and discounts on Apple products.
Obviously you shouldn't endorse dodgy software or other products, but this seems legit.
EACH TO THEIR OWN!
scareware. Whats wrong with the mountvol command?
But if you really want to be safe, use a journalling filesystem. Not a FAT, which was written by one guy in an afternoon 30 years ago.
And preferably not that NTFS abomination.
Hint: Windows does not use write caching on external drives. It does that because it knows that users are dumb.
Linux and OS-X assume (right or wrong) that users are smarter, so you should flush that cache, and wait for any big writes to finish.
Is exFAT journalling? Because that's your only option besides FAT32/NTFS..
scareware. Whats wrong with the mountvol command?
Nothing. Same as there was nothing wrong with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Do you recommend everybody use it too? Command line must always be better.
But if you really want to be safe, use a journalling filesystem. Not a FAT, which was written by one guy in an afternoon 30 years ago.
And preferably not that NTFS abomination.
Which still won't help you if a background process is updating the drive without your knowledge. Journalling will help keep your FILE SYSTEM safe, but NOT YOUR FILES. A real world example that I see regularly with uni students when I'm paid to recover their corrupted thesis a week before it's due - they hit the 'close' button on their thesis, but neglected to notice the 'Do you want to save the changes to thesis.doc?' dialogue box so didn't hit Save. Beause, as some people have said in stupid comments above, 'USB drives are always safe to remove if Windows isn't writing to them' they yank out their USB drive, only to find that the file was still open in Office but not saved properly. Then of course at best they lose their current work, or at worst the entire file becomes corrupted.
Hint: Windows does not use write caching on external drives. It does that because it knows that users are dumb.
Yes it does. Depends on how the drive was set up at the factory. Sometimes Windows also starts using the drive, without your knowledge, to save System Restore data. It sometimes won't allow the drive to safely eject until System Restore is disabled for that drive.
I can't understand why so many people are against trying to encourage users protect their data! Safely ejecting USB is so fast and easy, it's like using the turn signal in a car. But then again I was nearly driven into by three people who didn't indicate at roundabouts today, so I guess people can be stupid sometimes.
Free utility USBDEVIEW shows you if a drive is ready to be unplugged (despite Windows saying it's "in use" e.g. a file is read-locked).
Many free utilities like USBDeview are very technical and virtually impossible for a newbie to use, also they don't easily tell you what application or process is currently accessing the USB drive, or give instructions on how to force quit it.
This app is awesome for the ability to NAME the USB drives and card reader slots. You can also assign icons to different drives.
READ AND LEARN: http://safelyremove.com/features.htm
Anybody who uses a lot of USB drives and camera cards will absolutely love this program.
It is really good, even if you don't use the "Safely Eject" thing.
As for people who have never had a corrupted file even though not safely ejecting, you obviously aren't writing large amounts of data to USB.
I totally agree! I constantly use the USB port and I only have to hover my mouse over the icon and I can select what to eject in one click! You can also assign a hotkey combination.
All the negative feedback based on the technical side of things don't focus on the added functionality of this program which is why I love it.
Try it out, it's way better than the normal Windows 7 USB experience.
you can name and change icon in windows.
Used to use this on XP, mainly because I could fix drive letters for different USB drives, and could hide items from the list (my system drives were always listed). Could also return a device without needing to unplug.
Maybe some see it as unnecessary, but hey, it's free so take it or leave it.
http://goo.gl/Ou7snS