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removal of thumb drive

C

cheeryble

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
199
0
Hello

I am aware one is supposed to eject a thumb drive from the desktop before pulling it out of the USB. I do that, but when I pull it out i get the message
"device was not removed properly and you may lose information"
I never have lost data, but am interested in the proper way to do it.
Thanx John
 
If you're ejecting it properly, you shouldn't be seeing that message. To make sure, you're either clicking the little eject icon next to the thumb drive in the Finder sidebar, or dragging ti to the trash area on the Dock (which will turn into an eject symbol), right?

Maybe you're not waiting long enough after doing so? The whole point of ejecting the things is to let the OS clean up whatever it was in the middle of, which takes a few seconds--if your thumb drive has an activity light on it, have a look at it--after ejecting, it will usually flash for a few seconds, then stop, which is your signal that it's good to pull. If it doesn't have a light, wait until it disappears in the Finder, and maybe even wait a couple of extra seconds to be sure if you're still getting that message.
 
On a related note (hope this isn't hijacking!), if you drag a drive to the trash/eject icon then change your mind about removing it, is there an easy way to make OS X see it again without physically disconnecting and reattaching it?

No biggie, but I've always wondered.
 
You can open disk utilities and tell it to mount the drive, but I find it easier just to reconnect it.
 
although pulling it out straight away seems like the easier option and ejecting it seems unnecessary you really should ejesct the drive as it may become corrupted and unusable. this has happened to my ipod before.

you can also click on the drive on the desktop or in the finder and press "commdnd-E". i find this the easiest.
 
richthomas said:
although pulling it out straight away seems like the easier option and ejecting it seems unnecessary you really should ejesct the drive as it may become corrupted and unusable. this has happened to my ipod before.

you can also click on the drive on the desktop or in the finder and press "commdnd-E". i find this the easiest.
Click to expand...

Thanx for all those suggestions.
Actually i believe they all do the same thing I was doing.....rightclick the drive icon then "eject.
I still got the Device Removal warning.
But I have discovered the problem and cured it. Whenever the drive icon came up I would then get another icon for "U3 system" and Crossover would (annoyingly) open only for me to click ignore each time. I have found the warning does not come if I also eject the U3 system.
Any way I could avoid all that U3 stuff??
 
I have also been meaning to ask about this. I have a Cruzer Micro USB drive (4GB) that had an orange light on it. When plugged into a Windows machine, I can eject it normally and everything is fine. When plugged into a Mac, the password option usually available is no longer their, and when I eject it, the light stays on. Three times I have pulled it out anyways with no loss of data and no other warnings when I plug it back in. What, if anything, and I doing wrong.

Mitch -- swmr
 
I hate my cruzer sometimes...

At work on the PC, when inserted, it lights up. When working, it flashes. When "ejected" the light turns off.

On a mac, it does none of that, its always on. Eject in OSX, still on.

Plus, it has this U3 launch thing which I can not get rid of. Even in the Finder, I delete the stuff that appears to be auto.exe type stuff, and it comes back every time. I dont like inserting my USB drive and having it along with a CD .dmg mount at the same time. I have to eject BOTH to "safely" remove it.
 
You can get rid of the U3 thing. IIRC, the thumbdrive comes partitioned into 2 partitions. 1 for your data, the other for U3. Go into disk utility, delete the U3 partition and make 1 large partition and U3 is gone. Repartitioning will delete everything on your drive, so back it up first.
 
That whole U3 thing is utter crap. It's actually an ISO image, like a little 4MB or so CD. You can't delete it or reformat over it. On top of that, nothing on it is usable in a Mac environment. I gave mine away and got a Crucial 2GB for about $20. Nice & nekkid!
 
So if I format it, will it still be usable on both Mac and Windows with a "plug and play" setup? I hate that U3 crap, but it is crucial that I can still use it to print at school or at my college's computer labs and whatnot in an emergency.
 
swmr said:
So if I format it, will it still be usable on both Mac and Windows with a "plug and play" setup? I hate that U3 crap, but it is crucial that I can still use it to print at school or at my college's computer labs and whatnot in an emergency.
Click to expand...

To use it on both Mac and PC, you must format it as FAT32.
 
U3 partition

I also had this problem when I bought a Sandisk thumb drive. I found that if you use the stick in a PC, you can use the uninstaller included with the U3 software to completely remove it from the stick. Then you can leave it as is to use for Mac/PC or re-initialize it using Mac disk utility to format it for mac.
 
Hope I too am not hijacking this thread, but sometimes after clicking on the eject button, I get the "device is currently in use" message, but I have no idea what application/process is currently using it. Is there some way to figure to determine how it's being used? At times, I've closed all running applications, and I still get this message.
 
Thumb Drive Compatability Mac/Windows

The thumb drives I use for my Mac are not visible on Windows machines. My disc utility offers several ways to format, currently "Mac OS extended." Is there a way to configure these drives to be read on both Mac OS and windows operating systems?
 
Jon Kramer said:
The thumb drives I use for my Mac are not visible on Windows machines. My disc utility offers several ways to format, currently "Mac OS extended." Is there a way to configure these drives to be read on both Mac OS and windows operating systems?
Click to expand...

Format the drives to Fat 32
 
I've ejected my camera before, and it disappear from Finder and the desktop, but then when I unplug it I will get that error message as well. Then sometimes I will try and eject it and it will say it can't because it's in use, even though none of the pictures are open in any programs or being transferred to my computer so I unplug it. I think Apple has a few bugs to work out because there definitely are problems while ejecting drives in Leopard.
 
I use a Cruzer Micro USB drive, but when I eject it, the activity light blinks for a couple of minutes and then stays on. I don't get any error messages or anything, it's just disconcerting to pull out a drive that still has its light on.
 
I agree, the launch utilities on Flash Drives are a real pain and only work with Windows, along with the password options. Very irritating.

I have never had a problem pulling a flash drive out "improperly" but I have had an issue with disconnecting a camera without properly ejecting, so beware.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
I have a Cruzer drive, and couldn't get rid of the software (wasn't partitioned) by formatting.

I had to download the removal software (http://www.u3.com/uninstall/default.aspx) and boot in Parallels to get rid of it.

The software didn't affect my Mac but annoyed the hell out of me when I used a PC.
 
GSMiller said:
I've ejected my camera before, and it disappear from Finder and the desktop, but then when I unplug it I will get that error message as well. Then sometimes I will try and eject it and it will say it can't because it's in use, even though none of the pictures are open in any programs or being transferred to my computer so I unplug it. I think Apple has a few bugs to work out because there definitely are problems while ejecting drives in Leopard.
Click to expand...
I have a 2GB Memorex Thumb drive and a 4GB Dane Elec Thumb drive, and after I eject them, they are no longer visible on the Desktop, and I do not get an error message when removing the drive. I have them formatted at FAT32, because it is so handy to move info between my Macs and my Windows computers.
 
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