I just got myself a 128MB SanDisk Cruzer Mini USB storage thingy (USB 2.0). I say ‘thingy’ because I’m not sure what to call it. Is it a ‘disk’ or a ‘device’ or a ‘card’ or something else?
These things are fantastic! Are they very popular yet in America, UK, etc? They’re becoming reasonably popular here.
My question is whether or not it’s okay to just pull the thing out of the USB slot when I’m finished using it. Or do I have to go through the ‘safely remove’ thing that appears at the bottom right in the bar? I don’t want to do anything wrong with my new toy.
We tend to call them drives I think here in the colonies… Using Winblows XP? Best to unmount it. I don’t know why, but yeah. Windows '98 you can just yank it out, although some computers will freeze (like my gf’s.) Linux, unmount it, then yank. Mac OSX… Dunno.
I’ve got the 64M version of the cruzer and it’s way cool… my gf uses it all the time now since I’ve got a laptop now and never need it anymore
It’s best to go through the safely remove thing. All you have to do is click once on the green arrow, and select the device on the list it brings up. I never remember though…
My understanding of dongle is that it’s a networking device. Yours is storage. An accurate name is “USB storage device.” That’s about as exciting as most Standard Skill trick names, but accurate. You can also call it a memory key, or keychain memory device. I think memory key is a common name for those little ones.
You forgot to tell us what operating system you use.
In Windows 2000, you have to click the little green arrow down in your system tray. Otherwise your computer may start having mental problems. In Mac OSX, you drag the device’s icon into the trash, like with a CD or other plugged-in item.
Sorry, it’s Windows XP. But I’ll also be using it with some Windows 2000 computers at uni (the reason I bought it is to work on architecture design projects at uni and at home).
One common name for those things is a thumbdrive. I don’t know if thumbdrive is a generic term or a trademark name like Kleenex. But in general use, thumbdrive means any small USB flash memory drive.
The reason for going through the routine to get the “safe to remove hardware” message is to allow the OS to flush the disk cache and nicely close the USB connection.
Fortunately all that is not absolutely necessary if you’re using Windows 2K/XP and the USB drive is formatted with FAT or FAT32. Windows 2K/XP is supposed to flush any pending I/O operations to the USB disk within a second or a couple of seconds. So as long as you wait a couple of seconds after you are sure all disk activity is over, you should be OK.
If you have a USB type device that is formatted with NTFS then the routine to get the “safe to remove hardware” message is necessary. NTFS doesn’t play well with removable media and the disk cache can hold on to important data without flushing for long periods. It is possible to corrupt the disk if you just pull it out, plug it into a different computer, write a file, then plug it back in to the first computer again, then write a file. Don’t format your USB drive with NTFS. NTFS is not good with removable media.
With FAT and FAT32 you need to be aware that you can only copy a couple hundred files to the root directory. If you try to copy too many files to the root directory you’ll get a disk full error even though the disk still has plenty of room. The solution is to make sub-directories. You can put as many files as you want in sub-directories.
You can check by going to Windows Explorer, right-clicking on the thumbdrive and selecting Properties. On the General tab you’ll see the file system for the drive.
But the word dongle is already taken for another type of small little device. A dongle isn’t used for storage at all. It is used as a security device to help stop expensive software programs from being pirated. The expensive software program looks for special codes on the dongle. If the correct dongle isn’t installed then the software won’t run. Dongles are not completely effective. The warez groups know how to defeat dongles which means that even dongle protected software gets pirated.
Calling a small little flash storage device like that a dongle will only confuse those of us who know what a dongle is.
