Odd Vista/USB behaviour.

[Flibster]

Just spotted something odd with Vista.

With 98/2k/XP when you 'safely remove hardware' for a usb device it stops the device totally - Lights on usb pens go out, usb hdd's spin down.

Vista doesn't do this. So when I unplug my mp3 hdd player, the HDD is still spinning, same with the USB HDD's, same with USB sticks. Light stays on.

It's a bit concerning tbh. Data loss could be possible with the HDD's.

Sometimes I just want the mp3 player charging and not connected, on XP thats easy, plug it in then safely remove it. Still charges.

Hmmmm.

Simon/~Flibster

[LeperousDust]

You don't need to safely remove usb drives and hard drives from xp, they're automatically setup for that to happen unless you change it (at which point you then will have to..) So i assume vista just doesnt give the option because it isnt needed...

Here's xp (i don't have vista until tomorrow):
http://twobeds.com/upload/userfiles/LeperousDust/default.png

Tada

[Flibster]

Pretty sure it's set to that *connects to work PC to check....*

Yup. It's set to that - I really don't like unplugging USB HDD's while they are still spinning.

XP when using safely remove hardware spun the drives down and pretty much stopped them. Vista doesn't.

Getting on my tits now. :(

[Feek]

I really don't like unplugging USB HDD's while they are still spinning.

All you're doing is taking the power off them, no different to switching a PC off.

[Flibster]

But the screen on the MP3 player still says - Do not disconnect...

It works in XP and 2k and 98...

Vista... Noooo! :angry:

[LeperousDust]

The screen of your MP3 player is just being overtly cautious, because it doesn't know the thing its interfacing with gives it any protection. There is no need to worry at all. It's like saying you should switch every plug socket at the wall off at night to prevent random fires... Or whatever some silly people say :)

As much as i'm not a fan of vista yet (although i'll be forced to use it, WHEN MY LAPTOP EVENTUALLY ARRIVES TODAY! ARG!) it's only making life easy for you in this case!

[Feek]

Funnily enough, my iPod always had that "do not disconnect" message when I used it with XP, I just did it anyway after synching but running iTunes on Vista x64 it now behaves better than it ever has in the past.

All this despite the fact that iTunes is not supposed to work with Vista x64!

[Flibster]

Well, just tried playing something on my MP3 player.

Played fine yesterday. Today, the file is scrambled - only thing it's been plugged into is my work Vista PC.

Cock! I'm getting my XP box back!

Time to re-download the SModcasts. :(

Simon/~Flibster

[Daz]

The technical reason for that particular MP3 player saying do not disconnect is because it has a partition on it's flash disk mounted (I presume) - it's not being 'overly cautious' as such, it's just displaying what it's programmed to do. So either, for whatever reason, Vista is not dismounting or logically disconnecting the storage device in the same way XP does, and the device still thinks it's mounted - or Vista is unmounting the device in a way it's not programmed to handle - promoting the message to remain. In either case I dont think it's of any significance to the function of the device - if the file system is definitely being dismounted anyway. Write caching or not, file systems should always be cleanly dismounted.

The IPod is different though of course. The do not disconnect message is tied to the interface component inside the iPod that you need the drivers for - not the storage device itself.

[Flibster]

Plot thickens...

I can not get USB flash drives to dismount properly - it's long winded...

open my computer - right click on the drive - eject
*light goes off on the usb drive*
then right click again - safely remove

All ok.

Doesn't work on USB HDD's though.

Hmmmm....

Simon/~Flibster

[Daz]

Windows doesn't really class mass storage as removable media, or at least not the same type of it, so I'm not surprised the internal processes are different.

[Darrin]

Hrm, "odd" behaviour in a new Windows product? Never!! *snickers*

[Flibster]

Hrm, "odd" behaviour in a new Windows product? Never!! *snickers*

You can count on ...ooooh... everyones fingers here the number of times I've sworn at Vista this week so far.

My XP boxes at home are no problem at all. My main machine is now heading rapidly towards 4 months uptime.

Had this confirmed by someone else now though and he's just as pissed off with it. :D

Who wudda thunked that a 6gb hdd based MP3 player would be more of a pain in the arse than a 8gb usb drive.

Simon/~Flibster

[LeperousDust]

Currently having vista pains on first day of use :D NSIS error anyone :p *grumble*

[Flibster]

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Why_do_I_get_NSIS_Error

?

Simon/~Flibster

[LeperousDust]

Well its a today brand new dell laptop, not updated it yet because i can't get it connected to any "available" wi-fi hotspots nearby me, I don't have a working wireless AP atm, and i cba rerouting yet another cable to position this laptop somewhere akward, to update it, well not today at least...

[Daz]

Most the Dell Laptops I've seen need a BIOS update before installing Vista - you'll get some odd ACPI related things if not, and who knows what else.

The upgrade tool thingy made it quite clear I had to do it on mine, and I've seen similar on every Dell Laptop I've ran it on since. Though they've all been Latitudes fwiw.

[LeperousDust]

Haven't tried the program again just yet, but i've upldated everything via the dell website today, i've never used it before but make it very easy! I can see why the "average user" loves them :). I'm off out for the night now so i'll give it a god sometime soon hopefully. It's not a major problem now anyways i'm going back to uni with my wifi again :D

Cheers guys