I've never done it. Never had a problem either. As long as nothing is being written to the device it's supposed to be 100% safe to remove.
If write caching is enabled in windows and I believe at least one version it was default. That makes it 0% safe to remove!
Screenshot:
Took me a minute to find a shot. It used to be a super neato idea on USB 1 as its hard to operate on and navigate a drive while its super busy. Not as much anymore.
I have observed an hour go by back in the day pulling a drive and ending up with corrupted or not even updated at all files. Not so much these days still some minor risks. As long as caching is disabled should be good to go most of the time you know its not writing.
If write caching is enabled in windows and I believe at least one version it was default. That makes it 0% safe to remove!
Screenshot:
Took me a minute to find a shot. It used to be a super neato idea on USB 1 as its hard to operate on and navigate a drive while its super busy. Not as much anymore.
I have observed an hour go by back in the day pulling a drive and ending up with corrupted or not even updated at all files. Not so much these days still some minor risks. As long as caching is disabled should be good to go most of the time you know its not writing.
I safely remove every single time, because I've lost data in the past because I didn't. But if it nags me about it being in use, I usually just unplug it anyway. Nobody got time for dat.
I just go "Yoink" and pull that sucka out whenever I want to.
I've frizzle fried one drive by not "ejecting" it. Ever since I've been a safely remove kinda guy.