Does Safely Eject Hardware Do Anything?

You’ve probably had it drilled into you by a teacher or somebody in the IT department that unplugging a USB-connected storage device without first safely removing it is a recipe for disaster. Well, they weren’t wrong.

Until recently.

The simple truth is that if you’re in a hurry, you don’t need to worry if you fail to safely eject your devices anymore, thanks to recent (Windows 10) software developments. So if you’re wondering does “Safely eject hardware” do anything, it all comes down to a fairly recent update: the Windows “Quick Removal” feature.

The Lifesaving Quick Removal Tool

Starting with their sixth major update (1809) for Windows 10 in 2018, Microsoft incorporated this useful feature, along with a whole slew of quality-of-life improvements. In fact, it was integrated so seamlessly, that many didn’t even know it existed.

But it really does and Microsoft chipped into the discussion themselves to allay fears of yanking out a flash drive too early. It seems the developers realized that not everyone was taking the time to eject their USB devices properly. Hey, maybe they were even guilty of it on occasion.

But with the 1809 update, the debate has been settled. Done and dusted. But why is the “Safely eject” icon still in your icon tray? And does “Safely eject” work?

A Change of Policy

Most of us have pulled out a USB device sooner than we probably should have. Sometimes you’re in a rush. Sometimes you’re forgetful. Sometimes you’re feeling lucky and think that tugging out your flash drive or external hard drive can’t be as bad as they make it out to be. But not so long ago, however, there could actually be some nasty consequences.

If your PC was still writing to your device when you disconnected it, the cache operations would be cut off midway process and the odds were pretty high that whatever they were working on would be lost or corrupted.

The “Safely eject hardware” icon acted as a countermeasure. If clicked, it would stop any and all writing processes and allow you to pull out your flash drive guilt-free. That time between the click and the popup message was all it needed.

Early versions of Windows ran a storage device policy known as “Better Performance.” This made for faster transfer speeds as the machine didn’t suffer any issues during disconnection as it wrote to an external device. Meanwhile, the Windows “Quick Removal” feature is a backup that protects storage if there’s a disconnect at any moment. This does come with the sacrifice of speed, but ensures you’ll never lose another file again.

But Does “Safely Eject Hardware” Do Anything Anymore?

Still bugged by that icon? Don’t worry. You really don’t need to click that icon to eject your devices anymore.

Unless you’re right in the middle of writing files, that is.

Microsoft does allow its users the option to switch back to the “Better Performance” storage policy. If you want more speed or are feeling nostalgic, here’s how:

1. Right-click the Start Button and select “Disk Management.”

2. You’ll see your connected devices and disks. Right-click the one you want to change and click “Properties.”