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"Safely Remove" - Is Removing safely?

chekkizhar
chekkizhar Posts: 182
in Slackware

Hai

I have noticed just now that, when I try to remove my USB storage devices from system, in Slackware, using Safely Remove option, the LED in USB device continued its glow.

In my most of devices I dont have LED. When I used the old one I faced this. And for e.g, the USB device name is , NEW VOLUME means, that name is not disappearing from Main menu. If I click over it, again it is showing its content.

After I chose, Safely Remove, why still the device getting supply from system ? If I remove mean, that device wont get shock ? And if i click again means, contents are get displayed. So, what is the purpose of Safely Remove ?

I checked in my first distro, Fedora[laughlin] and my office system, SUSE, and W-----S XP . Things are fine, that is, after choose safely remove, LED get turned off and its entry is removed/disappeared from My computer window.

Why its not happening in Slackware ?

thanks.

Comments

  • RSims
    RSims Posts: 146
    I've never paid much attention to the "safely remove" stuff and I never had much of a problem, USBs are hot-swap-able regardless and do not get damaged, the only thing "Safely remove" does, as far as I know, is assure that its not currently in use when you pull it out.

    to answer your question tho, I don't know.
  • mfillpot
    mfillpot Posts: 2,180
    The "Safely Remove" operation unmounts the disk so no further activity can be passed to it, it does not stop power from going to the device because the system and the USB drive still communicate to confirm that it is connected.

    When you click back on the device it re-mounts the device.
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,116
    I've noticed that "Safely Remove" will flush buffers to the usb stick and unmount it, but, if left in the slot and not removed, it will be remounted again. At least in Fedora. I will watch for the lights on the stick to finish flashing, and when I see the Dolphin window disappear, remove the stick before remounting takes place.
  • chekkizhar
    chekkizhar Posts: 182
    Goineasy9 wrote:
    At least in Fedora. I will watch for the lights on the stick to finish flashing, and when I see the Dolphin window disappear, remove the stick before remounting takes place.

    yes, I also had this experience. And I think its better . plugging out when it is getting power from system , is like, plugging/un-plugging the power chord to/from the power socket with the power switch is in ON condition. I remember, i read some where in my engineering curriculum, that this method is wrong. :(
  • RSims
    RSims Posts: 146
    So old fashion works great then, pull it out when your not using it, lol. Easy enough.
  • marc
    marc Posts: 647
    RSims wrote:
    I've never paid much attention to the "safely remove" stuff and I never had much of a problem, USBs are hot-swap-able regardless and do not get damaged, the only thing "Safely remove" does, as far as I know, is assure that its not currently in use when you pull it out.

    to answer your question tho, I don't know.

    Friendly advise: get ready to lose your documents any random day.

    Don't *EVER* do that!!!! the "safely remove" (as the other have said) unmounts the filesystems and flush the information that was to be written to the device.

    As for the OP... it probably is just the energy supply :)

    Regards
  • mfillpot
    mfillpot Posts: 2,180
    linustorvalds wrote:
    Goineasy9 wrote:
    At least in Fedora. I will watch for the lights on the stick to finish flashing, and when I see the Dolphin window disappear, remove the stick before remounting takes place.

    yes, I also had this experience. And I think its better . plugging out when it is getting power from system , is like, plugging/un-plugging the power chord to/from the power socket with the power switch is in ON condition. I remember, i read some where in my engineering curriculum, that this method is wrong. :(

    That method is definitely wrong, I learned that the hard way when USB jump drives were first sold by destroying two USB devices when I unplugged them without them being in the safe state.
  • chekkizhar
    chekkizhar Posts: 182
    marc wrote:
    As for the OP... it probably is just the energy supply

    mfillpot wrote:

    That method is definitely wrong, I learned that the hard way when USB jump drives were first sold by destroying two USB devices when I unplugged them without them being in the safe state.

    I am almost sure, there is no input source inside USB devices [pen drives] , so it is getting power/energy supply from system.

    So, again, is this method is correct ?
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,116
    Click safely remove
    wait for lights to stop flashing
    wait for dophin window to close

    Somehow I guess I didn't make myself clear.
  • chekkizhar
    chekkizhar Posts: 182
    Goineasy9 wrote:
    Click safely remove
    yes . done :)
    wait for lights to stop flashing
    wait for dophin window to close
    this is what, not happening. :blink:
  • mfillpot
    mfillpot Posts: 2,180
    linustorvalds wrote:
    Goineasy9 wrote:
    Click safely remove
    yes . done :)
    wait for lights to stop flashing
    wait for dophin window to close
    this is what, not happening. :blink:

    It may be flashing because of some extra communication to confirm that the device is still connected, once it states that it is safely removed the umount is complete so you can consider it safe to remove from your computer.
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,116
    I'm going to have to time how long it takes for a remount to take place. There may be different defaults on Slack then there is on Fedora.

    Edit: Interesting, I think that in Fedora KDE the problem is fixed. It's not remounting itself. I bet anything that is was the Gnome 2 DE in Fedora 14 that was causing the problem (Or maybe it was just Fedora 14). So, since I started running Fedora 15, I've been rushing to remove the usb stick before it remounted, and, I didn't have to. I'm glad I found this out.
  • chekkizhar
    chekkizhar Posts: 182
    Goineasy9 wrote:

    Edit: Interesting, I think that in Fedora KDE the problem is fixed. It's not remounting itself.

    So,you are concluding this as a problem . Whatever, but I afraid when my data will lose as Marc mentioned .
    Hope , that LED glowing won't give any problem.
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,116
    Yes, I'm seeing this as a problem. After transferring files via flash stick from a F14 Gnome HD to a F15 KDE HD I was met with the 5-10 second remount on the F14 Gnome side. On F14 Gnome I had to use the "eject" choice in the menu to get an unmount. Hitting "Safely Remove" and (after the remount) "eject" would give me enough time to remove the stick. Guess it depends on what distro and what DE your using. BTW - If that led light is not flashing and is solid, It's not showing data transfer, it's just showing active connection.
  • chekkizhar
    chekkizhar Posts: 182
    Goineasy9 wrote:
    BTW - If that led light is not flashing and is solid, It's not showing data transfer, it's just showing active connection.
    yes, it is solid, when in idle condition. So, we can consider it done, understood.
    thanks goineasy9.

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