Microsoft has confirmed (once and for all) that it is no longer necessary to perform “Safely Remove Hardware” when you unplug a USB stick from your computer, or an external hard drive connected via USB. On its technical support site, Microsoft has clarified that on Windows 10 an option for quick removal of USB-connected memories has been active for some time, designed to prevent data loss or damage when a key is extracted. from your computer without first turning it off. Of course this system can only be used if you are not saving or reading files on the stick, otherwise you would still risk damaging them.
For years, numerous versions of Windows have always signaled the need to “safely remove hardware” before disconnecting USB sticks and disks. The recommendation, sometimes repeated with a certain taste for terrorism by computer experts, made sense: in some circumstances Windows could continue to read and write to the stick, even when it was not directly used by the user. In the event of a sudden removal, its contents could have been damaged and become unreadable. This possibility was quite remote, but for safety, Microsoft always advised to set the removal from the operating system first, so that Windows would stop seeing the key and it was therefore possible to remove it without any tricks.
On Windows 10, things have changed, and for a few months already. Last October, with version 1809, Microsoft introduced the change by preventing Windows from continuously accessing USB sticks and hard drives, thus making it possible to quickly disconnect them without first having to deactivate them in the operating system. Already on Windows 7, however, numerous measures had been added to minimize the risk of damaging files by making a direct disconnection from the USB port.
Although the solution was already there, and for some time, Microsoft had so far given unclear messages on the rapid removal. Even today, moreover, among the options provided by Windows continues to be the safe removal of hardware, although it is rare that the operating system displays warnings to this effect when you disconnect a device without having used it.
As for Macs, Apple recommends continuing to use the “Eject” function before removing USB storage systems. The recommendation also applies to the most recent operating system, macOS Mojave, which may intervene with reads and writes to storage systems (including SD cards) even when you are not using them.
