USB| Thumb Drive | Data Recovery

For those of you that have used USB keys over the years, I’m sure you have engrained in your memory how crucially important it is to ensure that you safely eject your USB key before removing it from your computer.

But the USB key has now been around for 20 years, is this still a necessity? Do you still have to eject your USB key safely from your computer? What does safely ejecting your USB key even mean? And what happens if you don’t safely remove your USB key? This blog aims to answer those questions.

What is a USB key?

Known by many different names, including thumb drive, pen drive, USB flash drive, and USB stick; USB keys come in all shapes and sizes and have a capacity ranging from 2GB to 1TB!

USB keys have non-volatile memories, meaning that no power supply is needed to store data. No power means no moving parts, which means it is not as susceptible to physical damage as say a hard drive is. Any data stored on a USB key remains there until it is deleted or formatted.

A USB key is made up of several components:

A USB plug to act as the interface to the host
A storage controller to make your device accessible to a host’s system
A crystal oscillator for controlling the flow of information
NAND flash memory chip for storing data
A cover that protects the main parts of the USB key

How does a USB drive work?

As soon as the drive is plugged in, a command is sent to perform a read request. Most computers equipped with USB ports detect the inserted flash drive and install the necessary drivers to make the data readable. Once the Operating System (OS) has detected a connection in the USB port, users can store and retrieve data. Any file a computer user wishes to save on a USB key will be converted to a binary format and sent to the USB port for forwarding to the drive’s NAND chip.

Before the flash drive

Prior to the flash drive, when reading or writing files, an OS would treat a disk as an object – one that had no chance of disappearing mid-read or mid-write. Some media even had mechanical interlocks that prevented them from being ejected until the software released the lock thus preventing any lost data or corrupted systems.

This all changed when the USB connected storage device was invented. With no mechanical lock, users could decide to remove the USB from the OS at any time, which when a USB is in use can lead to the corruption of the data stored on it.

What does safe removal do?

So, what exactly does the little button you click to eject your removable storage device do?

conflicting messages on Window’s own forum! And if you think about it, how long does it actually take you to safely remove your USB stick? It’s hardly time-consuming!

So, our advice is to keep using the ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject’ feature, as it should prevent you from having to contact a data recovery company like us!

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