“Why do external storage devices need to be ‘ejected’ prior to removing them?”

(Answer requested by Dreezy Mida)

Well, sometimes they don’t. Here’s what’s going on:

External (USB) storage is almost always slow storage compared to what’s inside a PC. As a result, PC’s using USB storage would typically buffer (temporarily store in RAM) data that was destined for an external device.

This way, the app wouldn’t have to wait for the slow device to finish. An app could write data to the (fast) buffer, and then go about its business while the buffer dribbled the data out to the device at whatever speed the device would support.

The problem was that if you removed or disconnected the external device before the buffers were fully cleared, you’d lose whatever data had not yet been transmitted to the device.

“Ejecting” (a term left over from the days of cassette-based storage!) or triggering the “Safely Remove” function for external storage causes the operating system to force-flush any data remaining in the buffer, ensuring that there’s no data waiting to be written. Once the device is “ejected,” it’s safe to remove.

However, Windows 10 no longer requires this: Since the Fall of 2018, Win10 now automatically keeps its external buffers flushed, so the odds of data loss from premature disconnection are greatly reduced.

It’s still a “best practice” or “belt-and-suspenders” thing to eject/”Safely Remove” an external device before disconnecting (that way, you’re 100% sure that it’s truly safe) — but with Win10, it’s no longer strictly necessary.

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