Removing SD cards/readers

[propwash]

I'm currently running Windows ME and I use a USB card reader to transfer images from my SD card to the computer. The instructions say that I should right click on the card reader icon in the lower corner of my monitor secren (right next to the clock) and then click on "unplug or eject hardware" before I unplug the card reader. This works just fine, and I have had no trouble with it. My question is : do I need to do this every time I want to switch cards, or just when I want to unplug the reader? I rarely have a session where I'm switching back and forth between multiple cards, but it does happen on occasion. So far, I have been going through the trouble of following this step every time I want to switch cards, and then reinserting the reader back into the USB port. I would rather not have to do this if it's not absloutely necessary, but I don't want to take the chance of screwing up any data on the card or my hard drive, either. If anybody has any definitive info on this I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[Gary Meissner]

You should only have to eject or stop the hardware when unplugging the card reader. Switching cards without unplugging the card reader itself shouldn't be an issue. I used to run ME and now use XP Professionable and switch cards all the time with no problems.

Windows does have a quirk however. It's called delayed write. What this means is that sometimes you may be writing to the card, then remove the card to insert another. You may get a message stating that windows can't write to the media. Because it didn't write the file when you thought it did. So be careful of that issue. I don't know how to fix that problem, others might though.

[Rhys]

You should only have to eject or stop the hardware when unplugging the card reader. Switching cards without unplugging the card reader itself shouldn't be an issue. I used to run ME and now use XP Professionable and switch cards all the time with no problems.

Windows does have a quirk however. It's called delayed write. What this means is that sometimes you may be writing to the card, then remove the card to insert another. You may get a message stating that windows can't write to the media. Because it didn't write the file when you thought it did. So be careful of that issue. I don't know how to fix that problem, others might though.

I've never had that problem - I use XP Pro though. Try asking on www.annoyances.org.

[propwash]

Thanks for the replies. I have swapped cards without unplugging the reader on a couple of occasions, but I wasn't sure I was supposed to do that. I saw no apparent ill effects, but I thought I might have been lucky those few times and wasn't sure that I could continue to get away with it forever. Thanks again.