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[stompy]

Windows XP (yes, it's SP2)...When I'm done working with one of my miniSD cards, do I need to do the "Safely Remove Hardware" thing before I take the card out, if I want to put a different card into the reader?  I hate having to unplug the reader and plug it back in just to swap cards, but I don't know for a fact that it won't destroy the card.  Anyone else know?

Thanks.   :?    

[rocky]

well I have never used that safely remove thing.  I think thats just to be extra safe just in case you are righting a file on it.  As long as you are not wrighting to your card it should be fine.

[victoreris]

I don't do that when I remove a card from the reader or put one in.  That's only for when you are actually unplugging the reader itself from the USB port.

[stompy]

Thanks much for the replies guys, I really appreciate it.  That certainly makes things more convenient.  As for stopping the hardware when unplugging the reader, does that even make sense?  What could break if you don't stop the reader before you unplug it?  I don't fully understand this whole safely remove...crap, and I should given what I do for a living but it all just seems hinky.  But, better safe than sorry on that one, I'll do it when I unplug the reader, but not when I remove the card, as long as it's not reading the card.  

Thanks!

[bitblt]

It's not going to break your USB reader.  The "safely remove hardware" feature is there to protect data being copied to your media.  Windows sometimes continues it's transfer process in the background even after it gives all appearances of having completed the task.

[stompy]

Sorry for resurrecting this ancient topic, but I've made a big discovery.  See, just a minute ago I destroyed my miniSD card.    No worries, it was my second card and I only had games I wasn't playing much on it.  BUT, I had just removed my primary card a second before that, so I consider myself very lucky on this one.  In the process of determining whether I'd trashed my card or not, I discovered that if you Right-Click the drive letter for the slot your card is in, you get an "Eject" option.  You MUST do this if you want to prevent data loss.  bitblt was right...you only need to "safely remove" if you're unplugging the card reader itself.  But everyone else out there who's just pulling out the card...the clock is ticking.  Sooner or later it's going to corrupt your card and you'll have to reformat it.  Just right-click the drive, choose eject, and within a second you can remove it.  It won't give you a prompt or anything, but i can tell it's refreshing the drive info in the explorer window.  It just so happens I've got my window set to show the details of the drive, so when it's plugged in, it shows the removable media as being formatted FAT.  After I eject it, that information disappears, so I know it's safe to remove.

I'm just REALLY glad I learned the "easy" way.  I hope this helps some of you.