During the fall 2010
semester, I was taking a business law course that required a plethora of
information to be maintained for case law research. I always carried my computer on me as I
was an Information Systems major, however, in the event that I didn’t have my
laptop on me I needed a viable second option for storage for my law
research. Also during this time, I
worked at an electronics store, so I picked up a USB flash drive from a company
that sounded like Pixar.
Long story short, I went to recover some files from that drive for
a midterm…and they weren’t there.
Complete panic ensued.
What may seem as a trivial matter to some, but is oftentimes overlooked, is how to safely eject a USB drive from a computer.
Recently, I had a friend ask
for my assistance in the matter as she knows that 1.) I am well versed in the
area of technology, and (I'm cautiously assuming), 2.) That she trusts my
judgment. The issue at hand was that her USB flash drive was not being
recognized when she inserted it into her computer. As I stated to her,
there could be a few things that caused the error, however, what more than
likely occurred was that the IRQ (Interrupt Request) ports were not
functioning. If this was the case, then a trip to the Device Manager
could possibly remedy the issue-but I digress.
To prevent the issue at
hand, it is best to safely eject your USB from computer. To do this:
1.) In the bottom right-hand
corner of your screen there is an upward-facing arrow. Click that. Afterwards,
you will see a sub-menu of icons; right-click the one that looks like a USB drive.
2.) Once you
right-click that icon you will see “Eject USB Mass Storage Device”-click that.
3.) You will then see a confirmation from Windows that your USB is safe to eject from your
computer.
