USB Keys and Mp3 players are always one of our best seling items. However have you ever wondered why you need to go through the process of locating the small icon to eject a flashdrive? To me I always found it a waste of time. Especially when I am running late and I simply need to unplug and switch off quickly. So I decided to do some research on why.

Basically ejecting a flashdrive tells the computer to stop writing files and reading files onto the flash memory. When you are in the middle of loading data onto a flashdrive if you simply remove it from your computer it will more than likely corrupt your file and potentially any other file within your flashdrive. The file would likely be totally corrupted and not be able to salvage. In many instances though even though you have not accesssed any files nor issued commands to access your USB key it still may be in the process of either being read or written. This is because running in the background your computer may have small tiny instructions still being sent to your USB key without your knowledge. At times your computer actually stores a set of actions especially small little ones and it executes this command to transmit data to your USB key without your knowledge. If you yank the USB key out then you risk losing all your data.

By ejecting your flashdrive correctly then you in effect tell your computer to stop and clean every little action it has in store to allow safe protection of your data.

In some instances (actually many in my case) on windows software you get the message that the drive is in use. This effectively stops the USB key drive from being removed. This happens because a program that is open (such as Outlook) may gain control of the USB port without even needing to use it or perhaps there is a background software that is accessing the drive. Either way yanking the USB key out can cause loss of data. The only remedy is to close all programs and to have a bit of patience and wait. So there you have it. You really do need to eject a USB key or Mp3 player prior to switching off!