http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646 Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: FREE one-year license - USB Safely Remove 3.3 (expires Feb 20) en-US Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:48:47 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646/page/2#post-19120 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:06:58 +0000 RunesageMagik 19120@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>This has indeed been an eye-opening thread. Definitely has me rethinking my cavalier approach before the next HD backup takes place!</p> <p>FYI - Got a response from Jonathan P. He's too busy to contribute, but asked me to pass along an illustrative anecdote- </p> <blockquote><p>I installed the Safely Remove USB utility on my computer last week and am using it happily. I like it so far. But I have not tried any other similar utilities. </p> <p>I can report that I trashed a USB flash disk last year by pulling it out AFTER trying the MS Safely Remove Hardware icon (didn't respond) and then waiting a while to make sure any files were done copying and the light was not flashing. It got ruined anyway. So I do recommend utilities that can help prevent this.</p> </blockquote> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-19084 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:52:26 +0000 LeKanaw 19084@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thank you Lee :-) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-19037 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:03:43 +0000 Lee 19037@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>The license giveaway week has finished.</p> <p>More than 9000 users have got free one-year licenses for USB Safely Remove! Many thanks to all people who show an interest in our program, as well as we are sincerely grateful to everybody who share news about this event on blogs or forums! </p> <p>They have 49 members, so give or take 50 I guess the majority of users here got to fill their boots. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-19035 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:45:37 +0000 LeKanaw 19035@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Salut Ender<br /> Just wanted to thank you for this great find that I DID <strong>*NOT* KNOW</strong> I needed!!<br /> Just incredible the state of my ignorance.<br /> Even though we have several USBs, externals, iPod, Palm, camera, I never paid much attention to the possible problems, even if one USB in particular (U3) is always refusing to be disconnected.<br /> It never even crossed my mind there was a program out there to deal w it.<br /> Installed it in all the PCs / Laptops. Love it!!! And will gladly pay for it at the end of the year.</p> <p>Thank u RM for all the advice, MrB for the photos... LOL</p> <p>PS Lee: 9,000 people from GOTD? Really?? Wow!! How did u manage to learn that number???? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18981 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:13:35 +0000 Lee 18981@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Finished, they would like to thank the 9,000 gaotd readers for downloading their software! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18965 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:11:49 +0000 ender 18965@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>wow, this thread got really long! lol, didnt think, that this was such a soughtafter tool!<br /> you are welcome native1.<br /> to be honest, i am unsure myself, what the 1 year license means?! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18923 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:19:36 +0000 native1 18923@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thank you ender for alerting us to this freebie. Now I can quit playing 'the shell game'. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18903 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:24:54 +0000 goodgotd 18903@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>you want more dangerous than pulling a memory card out? try leaving one in with win2k's 'gotta update last access' policy.</p> <p>dig into SmartMedia- the stupidest memory made. A friend gave me his old ricoh rdc-4200, max 16mb, smartmedia only. first time I used it, (not knowing any better, I was used to CompactFlash...) I erased the card using the reader. </p> <p>DRT- Dead Right There. Camera couldn't read, write, or format it. 50 bucks and 2 new cards later (I use it for a modest power microscope - <a href="http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ricohmagnifierandrealtizd1.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ricohmagnifierandrealtizd1.jpg</a> ) and it's read and pull the card asap. </p> <p>I found out that unless you have one of the old readers with the right low-level format program, *never* allow anything but the camera to write/erase/format the cards. Or it's $$$ time. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18902 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:14:48 +0000 BuBBy 18902@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I <a href="http://www.techspot.com/vb/post428042-21.html">think this might sum up</a> the way many people who know about (but disregard) safely remove USB device.</p> <blockquote><p>I have never, not once, used "Safely Remove Hardware" to remove any type of USB device, and have never experienced any problems. I usually make sure that i dont have any files open that are on the device, but sometimes i have left them open by mistake and they have just closed themselves, but no damage has been done to the device. If you ask me, the function is pretty useless, since i've never used it and never had any problems due to not using it.</p></blockquote> <p>I guess you could use the same logic against wearing "seat belts" and fitting "air bags" in cars. :P </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18900 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:01:15 +0000 BuBBy 18900@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>As ashamed as I am to admit it - In the past 3 years (rougly) I've corrupted two different memory sticks by removing them (after the lights had stopped) without using the "Safely remove device" option. Yes you would think I'd learn - after the first, but being in a hurry and thinking "what are the odds", "I do it all the time", "never had a problem before".</p> <p>I guess I was facing Dirty Harry, and there was one more bullet left in the gun - and this punk just "ran outta luck".</p> <p>So experience tells me - if you wait - it's not likely, but losing probably 6GB in data (I did have backups BTW) if the 10 seconds you save is more important than the data you may lose - then go right ahead. It's your data, and I'm not going to lose any sleep trying to convince anybody - do a search though on "necessary safely remove usb drive" and there are plenty of people who just didn't know - and hit various sites asking "what happened to my data" or "my files are now corrupt".</p> <p>The Odds are definitely on your side if you just wait then yank. But this is a lottery not many people like to "win" (if you get my point).</p> <p>On a lighter note:</p> <p><a href="http://gadgets.fosfor.se/the-top-10-weirdest-usb-drives-ever/">Top 10 Weirdest USB drives ever</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18797 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:14:16 +0000 goodgotd 18797@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>my problem is I'm still debating using the free code. Seems to me this is another popup-and-obscure candidate, like integrydesk- still trying to use that....</p> <p>Anyone got a clue why win2k thinks an ADS DVD Xpress DX2 video capture box (in standby, mind) qualifies as a 'don't remove' item? <a href="http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV-709-EF/intro/USBAV-709_intro.asp?pid=USBAV-709-EF" rel="nofollow">http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV-709-EF/intro/USBAV-709_intro.asp?pid=USBAV-709-EF</a></p> <p>BTW, I mistyped- I had to unplug the scanner as it caused the ads unit to be reported as removed at random (short) intervals. Annoying. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18792 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:37:17 +0000 haalam 18792@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Ummm.... did anyone else notice that a PERSONAL LIFETIME LICENSE is only $20 for this program? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18785 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:44:42 +0000 jinkazama 18785@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>so is it 1 yr worth of use or 1 yr free updates? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18763 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:43:28 +0000 RunesageMagik 18763@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Maizey, this isn't my bailiwick, so I strongly suggest that before you attempt to save or work on any important projects using that external HD, you speak to someone who is much more familiar with USBs, their idiosyncracies and related software utilities. Maybe contact the GAOTD member who runs this <strong><a href="http://jonathanstoolbar.blogspot.com/">blog</a></strong> and ask him. Coincidentally, he's talking about USB's and syncing this week and offers a utilities comparison table. Click on his complete profile for the link the GAOTD police say I can't post here. :-)<br /> <strong>UPDATE:</strong> <em> I sent him a, er, um, singing telegram.</em></p> <p>As much as I rag on MSFT for the way Gate's &#38; Co have bungled security and failed to maintain standardization and ignored backward compatibility and used heavy-handed tactics to crush small developers, I want to think that if this USB device connectivity problem were really huge, there'd be a loud hue and cry. Instead, most people seem to be nonchalantly dashing between work, home, libraries, planes, clients and friends using all sorts of USB devices and I haven't seen a lot of press attention about failures to recognize drives. Maybe that's just because I haven't been looking, maybe it's because the problem only occurs with certain configurations or devices. I simply don't know at this point.</p> <p>I presume that if you've <strong>installed</strong> something on the external in a way that literally registered it as "ON drive X" (or maybe created a shortcut on your PC to a folder "ON Drive X") and then the next time you plug it in, regardless the port, if the number of USB drives running is different and it's assigned Drive Y, maybe the shortcut wouldn't work, but the FOLDER would still be there. I look forward to learning right along with ya! </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18762 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:29:04 +0000 goodgotd 18762@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>bummer- USB Disk Ejector no workee under win2k, </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18761 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:10:28 +0000 maizeydaze 18761@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thanks again, RM. I was thinking of using the USB drive to do scheduled backups of a few files but not for auto backups. So far, I've manually copied photos and Office files onto it. From what I've read in one of the links you posted, Windows may not recognize the device if I were to unplug then replug it into a different port due to the way XP handles mapped drives. Is this correct? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18750 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:22:22 +0000 davee 18750@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>USB Disk Ejector (freeware) works for me. <a href="http://quick.mixnmojo.com/usb-disk-ejector" rel="nofollow">http://quick.mixnmojo.com/usb-disk-ejector</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18749 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:19:10 +0000 RunesageMagik 18749@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Hi, Maizey,<br /> I have a couple little keyfob USB flash drive thingies that blink when in use. When a file's done up or downloading, the blinking stops and I pull it. Everyone else I see at the library or at my clients' does the same.<br /> When all the file's on my camera flash card have clearly downloaded, I've never given a moment's thought to yanking my Iomega FloppyPlus device's USB cord from the tower USB port.<br /> When a manual backup to my external HD (I don't schedule anything) is completed, I turn off the HD and unplug it.<br /> However, if I were using an external HD for any sort of ongoing/always on operations, where the OS maybe treats it as part of the collective by performing reads/writes of System Info files or Recycler files or whatever ON that drive, or even if you used it to access and modify a Word or Excel file that does autobackups ever so many minutes, I'd be very leery of cavalierly disconnecting it. I suspect that's where this sort of software is needed most. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18743 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:07:38 +0000 maizeydaze 18743@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thank you, Bubby. Your explanation is very good. I recently took an old hard drive and installed it in a USB HDD case. Luckily, I have not unplugged it since putting data on it! I was totally unaware of the possibility of corruption or data loss by not shutting down these devises properly. I'm going to assume that there are more people like me out there because I've been using computers since before they had hard drives. Thanks again.</p> <p>RM, just saw your post too. Thanks for the info and links. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18742 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:57:05 +0000 goodgotd 18742@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>well, I've never gotten that many usb devices to co-exist. </p> <p>Not to mention what win2k thinks is ignorable </p> <p>(usb audio dongles and headsets, usb mice, joysticks, scanners) </p> <p>and what is worthy of scolding </p> <p>(card readers [not the cards in them, though I get a delayed-write whine later- which is nice- it means I got the smartmedia out before it got trashed], NICs, usb thumb drives, external video capture boxes) </p> <p>don't make sense. And I have to unplug the scanner or it crashes the ads capture box. grr. plug-n-pray. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18741 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:55:28 +0000 RunesageMagik 18741@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>There seems to be a lot of different questions concerning unmounting USB devices, so I'm dropping by to do what I do best... add to the confusion. You can thank me later. :-) </p> <p>I gather that if I/O data transfers are completed (incl. anything in cache), there's probably no problem yanking the suckers. If, however, there's activity and you interrupt it, data will likely be corrupted. The question becomes, "do you feel lucky, punk?" (Clint Eastwood?) I suppose you could call this software the Mother Superior utility. If it's not safe to unmount, a little ruler comes out and slaps your wrist. </p> <p><a href="http://www.wirelessforums.org/alt-comp-hardware/ok-unplug-usb-devices-without-turning-them-off-1460.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wirelessforums.org/alt-comp-hardware/ok-unplug-usb-devices-without-turning-them-off-1460.html</a><br /> <a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080212172611AANxI0L" rel="nofollow">http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080212172611AANxI0L</a><br /> <a href="http://digg.com/software/Windows_XP_USB_Drive_Won_t_Open_Says_Please_Insert_Disk_Into_Drive" rel="nofollow">http://digg.com/software/Windows_XP_USB_Drive_Won_t_Open_Says_Please_Insert_Disk_Into_Drive</a><br /> <a href="http://www.mepis.org/node/13750" rel="nofollow">http://www.mepis.org/node/13750</a></p> <p>Lookie lookie... FREEWARE competition - <a href="http://tinyurl.com/29ythy" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/29ythy</a> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18740 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:38:26 +0000 BuBBy 18740@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>When using USB mass storage devices, such as Digital Cameras and USB Data Keys, it is important that you remove them safely from your computer. Simply pulling them out of the USB socket can cause damage to the device and loss of data.</p> <p>Before unplugging a USB device (whether it is a camera, a mp3 player, a thumb drive, or external hard drive) you must ALWAYS tell windows you want to remove the device - so the device can be shutdown correctly and any pending file transfers are completed and open buffers get flushed. Also the device will power down (usually some indicator light will turn off).</p> <p>Problem is - the Microsoft "built in" applet to do this (usually in the system tray near the clock etc) just sucks.... really really bad. This freebie is just a much better version of what Microsoft supplied - and it is faster and more descriptive also (descriptive? I have about 9, sometimes 10 devices in my list - I want to make sure I am shutting down the correct one).</p> <p>I'm not sure, but I don't think you face the same risks removing a USB Game controller, or a USB webcam - in terms of data loss - but at least powering down the connection between your computer and the device has to be a good thing - before you rip out the plug. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18739 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:18:15 +0000 maizeydaze 18739@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Goodgotd, I was wondering the same thing as you. I did install it the other day but I can't seem to grasp it's purpose. When would I want to use it? Can't I just unplug an USB device to remove it? Sorry, if I am ignorant. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18732 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:19:24 +0000 goodgotd 18732@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Ok, I got a license- now can somebody explain in small words why I should install this? </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18675 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:36:01 +0000 BuBBy 18675@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Time running out - anyone who wants a free 12 month license:</p> <blockquote><p> We prolong the giveaway week <strong>until February 20th!</strong> Up to this date you can get a one-year license for USB Safely Remove for free! This license will allow you to <strong>freely use version 3.3 for one year.</strong></p></blockquote> <p><a href="http://safelyremove.com/fullFeaturesList.htm?scrb">Screenshots &#38; Feature List</a></p> <p><strong><a href="http://safelyremove.com/giveawayweekp.htm">Get a FREE 12 month license</a></strong> </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18126 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:17:57 +0000 Theleecher 18126@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>1 year licence? - bit of a poisoned chalice, as after a year, what, go back to the old way or have to buy it?</p> <p>Depends what kind of "1 year" licence... 1 year use, or 1 year update. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18103 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:35:47 +0000 Lee 18103@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thank you very much for your interest in USB Safely Remove! Your license will be sent to you in 24 hours<br /> Great likelyhood that you'll get it much earlier, but just in case, please, arm yourself with patience :) </p> <p>Took 10 seconds.</p> <p>Thanks for the link ender. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18101 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:26:00 +0000 ender 18101@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>thanks for your input, bubby!<br /> i have an mp3 player, a digicam, and 2 usb sticks, and an external harddrive, phew, it seems like, i might need this :) </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18100 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:23:25 +0000 BuBBy 18100@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>I've used this, and it is definitely nicer than the microsoft tool. Note when disconnecting USB drives etc you should eject or "Safely Remove Hardware" to prevent data loss. </p> http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2646#post-18099 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:22:55 +0000 Lee 18099@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <p>Thanks, looks good, hope it works. </p>