W2K- how do you disable the "Unsafe removal of device" msg when you unplug a USB device?

[Bozz]

I need to know how to disable this message in Windows 2000 so it does not appear when you DONT stop a USB device before unplugging it.

XP doesn't show the message however I dont want to downgrade to XP.

 

[arsbanned]

Stop the device first.
or
Perhaps it isn't a downgrade after all.

 

[Bozz]

Originally posted by: arsbanned
Stop the device first.
or
Perhaps it isn't a downgrade after all.

I dont mean to be rude but can you read and understand my post before commenting?

 

[arsbanned]

Which part of my response don't you get? btw, rudeness doesn't bother me. I enjoy it. I thrive on it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

That warning pops up for a reason. It's there to tell you that you did something really stupid.

 

[Nothinman]

You have to stop them because something might be using the device or the filesytem cache might not be in sync with the device. So if you just unplug and run you run the risk of losing data.

 

[Bozz]

Thank you for preaching. Since I shall continue doing things you consider "stupid", I would like my original question answered.

 

[Nothinman]

You probably wouldn't consider it 'preaching' if you had lost data because you didn't release the device properly, but just give it time because eventually you will.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Bozz
Thank you for preaching. Since I shall continue doing things you consider "stupid", I would like my original question answered.

Install XP, no down grade necessary.

 

[Bozz]

n0cmonkey, please cease trolling. XP has the same problem as 2000 if you dont stop the device before ejecting it if data has not been completely written to it. I am aware of all the consequences if you do this. I simply wish to know how to stop the error message, since I completely understand the risks, I do not need you telling me that the world will end and your cat's head will explode as a result of me ejecting devices without stopping them.

For everyone elses reference, the problem device is an external no name multi card reader that supports CF, MS and xD card types. As soon as I eject any card, Windows 2000 gives the error. All I am doing is reading files from it and saving them to the HD.

 

[Bozz]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Bozz
Thank you for preaching. Since I shall continue doing things you consider "stupid", I would like my original question answered.

Install XP, no down grade necessary.

I do not own a copy of Windows XP. I do own a paid for, legal copy of Windows 2000.


-------

Can anybody answer my question?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Bozz
n0cmonkey, please cease trolling. XP has the same problem as 2000 if you dont stop the device before ejecting it if data has not been completely written to it. I am aware of all the consequences if you do this. I simply wish to know how to stop the error message, since I completely understand the risks, I do not need you telling me that the world will end and your cat's head will explode as a result of me ejecting devices without stopping them.

For everyone elses reference, the problem device is an external no name multi card reader that supports CF, MS and xD card types. As soon as I eject any card, Windows 2000 gives the error. All I am doing is reading files from it and saving them to the HD.

I'm looking on google now for you. Why not just go through the recommended proceedure for removing the disk? That seems easier and safer than messing around with error message handling.

 

[Bozz]

I can but I wrote a quick VBS program to scan for a folder on my CF card, as soon as it detects it (ie its plugged in), it copies the contents of the card to a photos folder on my desktop, there is no user interaction with the keyboard and mouse at all. As soon as its finished copying I eject the card and get the error.

Point is I *can* stop it, there's nothing stopping (pun intended) me from doing so but I just want the convenience of not having to stop it before ejecting it.

I did spend a while trawling google but couldn't find an answer hence posting here.

Cheers for searching though, I hope you come up with something better than I did (nothing)

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Bozz
I can but I wrote a quick VBS program to scan for a folder on my CF card, as soon as it detects it (ie its plugged in), it copies the contents of the card to a photos folder on my desktop, there is no user interaction with the keyboard and mouse at all. As soon as its finished copying I eject the card and get the error.

Point is I *can* stop it, there's nothing stopping (pun intended) me from doing so but I just want the convenience of not having to stop it before ejecting it.

I did spend a while trawling google but couldn't find an answer hence posting here.

Cheers for searching though, I hope you come up with something better than I did (nothing)

There should be a hook somewhere to let the VBS program stop the device... Or atleast, there should be

The device and device driver stipulate whether you get this warning or not. If you look in Device Manager and then the properties of the drive itself, you may be able to disable write-caching, which stops the warning.

Bill

From here. Don't know if it will be any help.

 

[Bozz]

There probably is but i'm a newbie at VB and hardly know anything about it, when I go back to work I'll do a bit of study and see if it can be pulled off easily...

I was just hoping there was a registry hack or something simple....

--------
edit - write caching was greyed out.

I also tried ticking "Disable USB error correction" in the USB hub properties and that didn't do it either.

 

[arsbanned]

For everyone elses reference, the problem device is an external no name multi card reader that supports CF, MS and xD card types. As soon as I eject any card, Windows 2000 gives the error. All I am doing is reading files from it and saving them to the HD.

That's interesting. I have a Win 2000 machine here with a USB SD card reader on it and can pull the disk out without the error message. However, if I pull the solid state keychain type drive off the message comes up. I trained the user to stop the device before removing it.
I like your determination though.

 

[Bozz]

Thats probably why mine cost $8 at the local computer swap meet, I figured even if it didn't work, who gives a rats about $8. This reader has no writing or labels on it other than a "OK" sticker with a tick on it

On the other hand, if I bought a good quality one......

 

[TechnoPro]

Download this gem from Microsoft.

The DevCon utility is a command line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. Using DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices.

My suggestion would be add a line of code to stop the device once you have copied over the contents of the disk. Devcon.exe can be a pain to work with at first, but it's doable. Hope this helps.

 

[beatle]

Wow, you guys were pretty harsh on Bozz! If I still used 2k, I'd have the same question worded the same way. I agree that Win2k is trying to prevent you from doing something stupid, but as long as you don't pull the drive while it's being accessed, there's no real risk.

FWIW, XP is actually a nice OS. I prefer it over 2k (after you take off all the stupid eyecandy, change from the "new and improved" menus, and "deal" with activation).

 

[Nothinman]

but as long as you don't pull the drive while it's being accessed, there's no real risk.

Yes there is, unless you have some way to know for sure that all the buffers in memory are synchronized that I don't know about.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

but as long as you don't pull the drive while it's being accessed, there's no real risk.

Yes there is, unless you have some way to know for sure that all the buffers in memory are synchronized that I don't know about.

I don't follow you here. Would the memory hold data without writing it to disk for a long time?

 

[Nothinman]

I don't follow you here. Would the memory hold data without writing it to disk for a long time?

It may. The way writes to disk are usually handled is that the changes are held in memory and marked as dirty, they're left in memory so that if another change happens it happens in memory which is much faster than updating the data on disk. After the page is dirty in memory so long it will be flushed to disk and marked clean again. There are ways to tweak the behaviour, like in the source for an application you can call fsync() to make sure a certain set of buffers are synchronized and some OSes have a means to mount a filesystem as synchronous but the slowdowns are usually so bad that it's avoided in most cases. I believe Windows mounts floppies as synchronous by default because they have no 'eject' or unmount mechanism for them, but I don't know about other devices.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I don't follow you here. Would the memory hold data without writing it to disk for a long time?

It may. The way writes to disk are usually handled is that the changes are held in memory and marked as dirty, they're left in memory so that if another change happens it happens in memory which is much faster than updating the data on disk. After the page is dirty in memory so long it will be flushed to disk and marked clean again. There are ways to tweak the behaviour, like in the source for an application you can call fsync() to make sure a certain set of buffers are synchronized and some OSes have a means to mount a filesystem as synchronous but the slowdowns are usually so bad that it's avoided in most cases. I believe Windows mounts floppies as synchronous by default because they have no 'eject' or unmount mechanism for them, but I don't know about other devices.

That's interesting. Perhaps WindowsXP does this for removable devices like memory sticks, thus the warning is no longer?

 

[Nothinman]

That's interesting. Perhaps WindowsXP does this for removable devices like memory sticks, thus the warning is no longer?

It's possible, but without finding something on MS' site that confirms it I wouldn't trust it.