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I have a USB card adapter I want to leave attached to my PC forever. When I insert a card, write things to it, and then I want to remove it, I don't have an option to just commit to that card -- just to remove the entire USB device, as you can see. (This is Windows Server 2008.)

My System Tray

If I select that and then remove and reinsert the card, Windows no longer recognizes it. I have to pull the reader and plug it into the USB again.

What is the proper practice here? Should I just wait a bit for data to commit and then pull the card? How can I tell it isn't still writing cached data?

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Most newer card readers have an indicator light to let you know when it's done. If yours lacks this feature, I'd give it a sec and then pull it. I've known people who went years without even knowing about the "safely remove" option, never lost data... just waiting did the job for them. – CreeDorofl Mar 30 '11 at 0:37

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

A lot of times you can just right click on the drive and pick Eject.

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That's what I do. Right click on the drive / Eject, then Windows will tell you when it's safe to remove the card (usually immediately). – gordoco Mar 30 '11 at 2:33
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If, when you double click on the icon (instead of right-clicking), you are given a similar screen to below, then you should be able to remove just one device from the hub.

Note: I have not tested this!

Enter image description here

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