How to Unplug/Eject Memory Card in Win XP?

Ï "Dave" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
news:UUKUi.152784$1y4.139534@pd7urf2no...
Yeah, that's the way I usually do it as well. However I do wonder if it is
necessary with XP, as occasionally when I just pull the card out it seems
to
be OK. Of course if you do that while the card is reading you are asking
for
trouble, just like when you turn off your camera before it has a chance to
put the files into the card. Does anybody know if you really have to shut
off the cardreader to just remove a card? My next step is usually to
format
the card after that anyway.

Nope.If you disconnect the card reader *itself*, then you have to use remove
safely, or whatever it is in English.If you just pull off the card off the
reader, when transferring activity has ceased, you get no windows warning
message, so I presume it's safe.BTW, if you disable/disconnect the card
reader, you have to reconnect it, to make it working again.I suppose the
reader's internal circuitry has something that allows you to remove a card
live.

Dave

"Sparky" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 27, 11:04 am, "Davy" wrote:
I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my
Windows
XP
PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera I insert the SD
card
but XP does not seem to see it.
Do you go to "My computer"to find the card reader as removable
drive(s)?(Mine has 4 drive letters, 1 for CF,1 for SD, one for memory stick
and one for xD.Believe has something to do with its internal architecture)

I need to unplug the USB cable and
reinsert
it. Ditto if I 'stop' the device.
Is there a better way than this?
Davy

down in the lower left corner there is a little thing that says safely
remove devices or somethign
click that and then select what you want to eject


There's no need for this, IMHO if you just pull the card off.If you connect
your *camera* with a USB cable, then you have to do this.

Just my 2 cents...



--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr

Tzortzakakis Dimitrios wrote:
Ï "Dave" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
news:UUKUi.152784$1y4.139534@pd7urf2no...
Yeah, that's the way I usually do it as well. However I do wonder if it is
necessary with XP, as occasionally when I just pull the card out it seems
to
be OK. Of course if you do that while the card is reading you are asking
for
trouble, just like when you turn off your camera before it has a chance to
put the files into the card. Does anybody know if you really have to shut
off the cardreader to just remove a card? My next step is usually to
format
the card after that anyway.

Nope.If you disconnect the card reader *itself*, then you have to use remove
safely, or whatever it is in English.If you just pull off the card off the
reader, when transferring activity has ceased, you get no windows warning

I think that data transfer depends on the OS. The OS deals with how/when
to actually sync the mounted partitions. So, it is possible the desktop
GUI may show that the transfer is complete but it may take a bit longer
for everything to wrap up actually at hardware level (IIRC, file
deletions are a case in point). The "remove safely" option just ensures
there are no loose thread. It is never advisable to just yank out a
memory card from a reader -- you may get away with it most of the times,
but it can result in severe data loss once in a while.

-HS

wrote:
On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:04:24 +0100, in rec.photo.digital "Davy"
wrote:

I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my
Windows XP PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera
I insert the SD card but XP does not seem to see it. I need to
unplug the USB cable and reinsert it. Ditto if I 'stop' the
device.
Is there a better way than this?

If your reader supports this, open up My Computer and right click
on the drive assigned to the reader/card and choose Eject. This
works fine with my IOGear multi-reader/USB hub.

I have a Nameless Firewire reader that responded well to that routine;
for months on end it saw the next card inserted and acted
appropriately. Then one of the Windows UpScrewUpdates must have done
something stupid. Since then, "Eject" will leave a sensitive reader
for a while, but later on it requires the Firewire cable be
unplugged/plugged.

Just thinking: perhaps I haven't been patient enough. Windows is set
to turn off drives after an hour; could it be the readers are slow to
respond to awakening? Next time I'll wait longer before unplugging.

--
Frank ess

On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:27:48 +0100, John Bean wrote:
: On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:04:24 +0100, "Davy"
: wrote:
:
: I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my Windows XP
: PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera I insert the SD card
: but XP does not seem to see it. I need to unplug the USB cable and reinsert
: it. Ditto if I 'stop' the device.
:
: Yes, sadly that's the way Sandisk have implemented it. I
: have other (slower) readers that inform Windows when cards
: are inserted and removed, but not my Sandisk Extreme. It's a
: damned fast reader but it has its irritating little foibles.
:
: Is there a better way than this?
:
: Let me know if you find one :-(

My Sandisk Extreme doesn't seem to behave that way at all. I can remove and
replace the card with no problem. Sometimes the computer notices right away
and sometimes not. But when it doesn't, and I try to do something with a file,
it simply tells me to insert a card. (Actually I guess it's "insert a disk".)

Full disclosu My computer is Windows Server 2003, not XP. But I strongly
suspect they use the same driver. When I have a little more time (I'm trying
to finish up a couple of things before the World Series Game starts), I'll try
it on my XP laptop.

Bob

Davy wrote:
I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my Windows XP
PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera I insert the SD card
but XP does not seem to see it. I need to unplug the USB cable and reinsert
it. Ditto if I 'stop' the device.
Is there a better way than this?
Davy


Generally, if you leave the card reader plugged in, you don't stop the
device as that will require you to unplug and replug it for XP to
recognize it. I just take the card out, and put another one in. It
takes XP some time to recognize this has happened, and I don't know any
way to make it see the new card faster.

Sparky wrote:
On Oct 27, 11:04 am, "Davy" wrote:
I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my Windows XP
PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera I insert the SD card
but XP does not seem to see it. I need to unplug the USB cable and reinsert
it. Ditto if I 'stop' the device.
Is there a better way than this?
Davy

down in the lower left corner there is a little thing that says safely
remove devices or somethign
click that and then select what you want to eject

ONLY if you want to remove the device, physically, NOT just the card.
It is safer to repeat the process, however, with removable readers, but
if you do that with a built-in card reader, you will need to reboot to
get it to work again!

Bert Hyman wrote:
In oups.com Sparky
wrote:

On Oct 27, 11:04 am, "Davy" wrote:
I have a Sandisk Extreme card reader permanently plugged into my
Windows XP PC. Whenever I want to download images from my camera I
insert the SD card but XP does not seem to see it. I need to unplug
the USB cable and reinsert it. Ditto if I 'stop' the device.
Is there a better way than this?
Davy
down in the lower left corner there is a little thing that says safely
remove devices or somethign click that and then select what you want
to eject

But that doesn't solve the problem of how to get XP to notice that
you've plugged the card back into the reader at some later time.

So far, the only way I've discovered to do that is to unplug the reader
from the USB port and plug it back in, just as the original poster is
doing.

You'd think there would be another way ...

Just put the card in, and WAIT. It may take a minute or two for XP to
notice it.

On 27/10/2007 19:21, * H.S. wrote:
Cynicor wrote:
I always just pulled my card reader/MP3 player/portable drive out of the
USB slot with no ill effects for years. Then the day before a
trans-Atlantic flight, I must've disconnected my MP3 player with a file
open, corrupted the directory, and I couldn't play anything on it. I
reformatted it, and it's been working without any problem for over two
months again. Since then, I always right-click in Explorer and choose
"Remove Safely."

Yes, that is the lesson to take home!

Most people do not realize this and assume that Windows somehow can
reads their minds.

One has to do this in Windows as well as in Linux (and in Mac too I guess).

-HS


To set up the card reader etc for fast removal in XP, go to My Computer,
right click on the relevant drive, and select Properties.

Select the Hardware tab, select the relevant drive (again), click on the
Properties button, then the Policies tab. Tick the Optimise for quick
removal option.

No need to to use the safely remove hardware thing again.

Tony M

In Ron Hunter
wrote:

Bert Hyman wrote:

You'd think there would be another way ...

Just put the card in, and WAIT. It may take a minute or two for XP to
notice it.

Actually, there is another way, and it's apparently been there forever
and I never noticed it 'til somebody in this thread mentioned the
"Eject" selection in some context menu or another.

In File Explorer, if you right-click the drive letter for the slot
corresponding to the individual memory card in your multi-card reader,
there will be an "Eject" entry. If you click that, the card will be
unmounted, but the card reader will remain.

If you re-insert the card, or insert another card, it will be
recognized, eliminating the need to unplug the reader from the USB port
and plug it back in again.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

? "H.S." ?????? ??? ??????
...
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios wrote:
Ï "Dave" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
news:UUKUi.152784$1y4.139534@pd7urf2no...
Yeah, that's the way I usually do it as well. However I do wonder if it
is
necessary with XP, as occasionally when I just pull the card out it
seems
to
be OK. Of course if you do that while the card is reading you are
asking
for
trouble, just like when you turn off your camera before it has a chance
to
put the files into the card. Does anybody know if you really have to
shut
off the cardreader to just remove a card? My next step is usually to
format
the card after that anyway.

Nope.If you disconnect the card reader *itself*, then you have to use
remove
safely, or whatever it is in English.If you just pull off the card off
the
reader, when transferring activity has ceased, you get no windows
warning

I think that data transfer depends on the OS. The OS deals with how/when
to actually sync the mounted partitions. So, it is possible the desktop
GUI may show that the transfer is complete but it may take a bit longer
for everything to wrap up actually at hardware level (IIRC, file
deletions are a case in point). The "remove safely" option just ensures
there are no loose thread. It is never advisable to just yank out a
memory card from a reader -- you may get away with it most of the times,
but it can result in severe data loss once in a while.


My card reader has an "access"LED-I suppose when this goes off it's safe to
pull the card off.I had no problems with CF cards so far.(Since the card
reader is always plugged in a USB port I have never used remove safely
before).It's a sweex 12 euros card reader.


--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr