How do you "Eject" the phone/USB from a PC?

[OldHooky]

I was expecting to see the option Eject when right clicking, but it's not there. (Simply pulling out the USB cable is not advisable as next time I insert it the PC won't recognise the phone properly, and it needs a battery pull.)

The "Eject" option is there with other USB devices - is this something particular to the Droid/Milestone?

Cheers

 

[drowe]

In Windows Explorer, right click on the drive and choose eject. Or, go through the system tray and the Safely Remove Hardware.

 

[OldHooky]

Neither of these options are available. They are for other USB devices though.

 

[Gunner]

Just the reverse of when you 'mount' it to the PC (sounds so dirty doesn't it). Just pull down the notific. bar on the Droid > tap Turn Off USB storage > tap 'Turn Off' > unplug phone from PC. Make sure you close any explorer windows first on the PC. Don't try to use the PC's eject feature.

 

[OldHooky]

Just need to confirm what you say Gunner, as I don't "Mount" it as it connects and is identified immediately.

Cheers

 

[drowe]

Both options are available on my XP and Win 7 boxes..... A permission issue maybe? Is this a work box that has a "no usb drive" group policy enforced? That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[drowe]

Just need to confirm what you say Gunner, as I don't "Mount" it as it connects and is identified immediately.

Cheers

If you choose mount from the phone notifications, it shows up as a drive and then you can eject it.

 

[Gunner]

I was assuming you were trying to connect the phone as a USB drive to the PC to copy files. Or are you trying to do something else? When you plug it in, you should still have to pull the tray down on the phone and tap on USB > Mount. On my Win 7 laptop I have to do that everytime I connect it.

 

[OldHooky]

When connected it automatically launches Motorola Media Link. I don't have to select Mount for it to work.

My Drop down Menu - USB Connection - Motorola phone tools/Windows media sync/Memory card management/None are the options.

Ah! Just noticed on the work laptop (Vista) that the Toolbar icon Safely Remove Hardware is there and I can eject it from there.

Still doesn't explain where it's gone on my XP Netbook!

 

[drowe]

When connected it automatically launches Motorola Media Link. I don't have to select Mount for it to work.

My Drop down Menu - USB Connection - Motorola phone tools/Windows media sync/Memory card management/None are the options.

Ah! Just noticed on the work laptop (Vista) that the Toolbar icon Safely Remove Hardware is there and I can eject it from there.

Still doesn't explain where it's gone on my XP Netbook!

Your Motorola phone tools is grabbing it before Windows. If you uninstall Phone Tools, it will revert back to the behaviour on your win7 box. If there is an option in Phone Tools to "eject, disconnect, stop or something similar" and that will take care of it.

 

[OldHooky]

Drop down menu as recommended, selected from the 4 options Motorola phone tools. Now shows up on My Computer as Milestone, whereas before it was just the SD card which showed up.



Update: Can eject it when using Memory Card Management, but when Moto Phone Tools or Windows media sync, there's no option and I then get back to old situation of having to do a battery pull if it pull out the USB.

Any more ideas?

 

[DanSan]

just download the app called, MountUSB.. works wonders. does all those steps mentioned above in one simple click..

when i was on my pc id just hit the icon on one of my screens, do whatever i need. then hit mountusb again to unmount it and then just unplug it.

now that im using a mac even if i do all that and still eject it the mac is like hey, u didnt eject this correctly mofo.

 

[SinfulDragon]

I just pull the cable, the phone will then prep the SD Card and all is right in the world again

 

[kbayer]

I just pull the cable, the phone will then prep the SD Card and all is right in the world again

I once just absent mindedly pulled it as well, by accident... evrything was still ok. I normally still go ahead and follow the procedure -- just in case.

 

[barry99705]

I just pull the cable, the phone will then prep the SD Card and all is right in the world again

Don't do that if something in windows is accessing or writing to the card. You'll end up having to reformat the card.

 

[SinfulDragon]

Don't do that if something in windows is accessing or writing to the card. You'll end up having to reformat the card.

Very true, but as long as you aren't moving files to/from there is no issues. I've worked with PCs for a long time now and the only time I've seen ill effects from this is when I do it to my iPod, otherwise, phones, thumb drives, etc all seem to take it very well.

Thats not to say its bad to error on the side of safety, thats just to say I'm lazy and don't feel like going through all the steps when I can just unplug.

 

[OldHooky]

You're quite right that it would reformat the SD. The problem is that the PC would then only recognise the card until I did the battery pull.

I'll give Mount USB a go. Thanks for the info.

 

[shadowdude777]

Yeah, there's no problem with pulling the cable if you're ABSOLUTELY SURE nothing is accessing the SD card, but then, you never really are absolutely sure. Something could be happening in the background? So eject it anyway, you guys.

Just a note: This doesn't apply to external hard drives or other things formatted as NTFS. It might take up to even a few minutes for the filesystem to write whatever was in the cache to the disk. So don't unplug NTFS media at all without removing it first (which will force the cache to dump its contents to the drive), or else you risk having a corrupted filesystem and having to reformat.

 

[alostpacket]

I just make sure to UN mount from the Droid. I have assumed, though I don't know for sure, that unmounting from the Droid is as safe as ejecting. Maybe an expert on the forums can confirm?