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Safely Removing USB Stick

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port_user
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Safely Removing USB Stick

Just installed. Great idea. However, I cannot remove the memory stick. It's constantly in use even after all portable applications are closed. The process portappl remains active (in task manager). When I finally killed the process and tried to close the stick, OS crashed. Any suggestions on removing the USB? Thanks.

John T. Haller
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Not Us

The process "portappl" isn't anything we make. Perhaps it's another one of the apps you have installed? Something running in the system tray? Or an Explorer window open?

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port_user
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Safely Removing USB

Sorry John. To be more precise, the process name is: PortableAppsPlatform.exe. It's running under explorer.exe In the Process Explorer view. No other portable applications is running. Whatever the reason, the stick cannot be removed - tried on two different computers.

Smile

John T. Haller
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Exit

Ah. You just need to close the PortableApps.com Platform before ejecting. It's the little PortableApps.com icon in your system tray. Click it and then the X. Or click eject and then select your drive to safe eject (the 2.0 release will automatically eject your drive for you).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

port_user
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Safely Removing USB

Thanks. I've figured this out by now :). However, I found that VLC was causing a problem and I had to reinstall it - this time from the 'Options.' Another thought - whatever I did wrong (not closing, killing 'portable' processes etc) this, in my view, must not cause OS to crash... Thanks again for your feedback.

Smile

Spathi
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Is there a commandline exit

Is there a commandline exit for PA? I use a bat file to shutdown everything and unmount drives on the USB, the drives won't unmount with PA running.

p.s. If you are formatted fat or fat-32 you can yank it pretty safely.

Simeon
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nope

There is no commandline exit for the Menu/Platform.

And I would never yank my drive, I have seen to many people come here and have had problems because of that.

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jamvaru
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Fat32

I have heard that FAT32 does not need to be "safely" removed as it does not journal like NTFS. Is this right?

Is fat 32 a better idea for sticks? I have heard it is more susceptable to memory corruption (data corruption).

Isn't it right that as long as the light is not flashing you can 'safely' remove your stick (manually)? I understand this is not the case with ntfs. Also, some program settings may not be saved, etc.

;>jamvaru

Spathi
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It is fairly safe

NTFS is delayed write.. device manager right click the drive and have a look.

FAT32 defaults to safe but can be made 'unsafe' I think.
http://newbling.net/wtf/crap/fat32-quick-remove.jpg

Unless you are writing millions of small files or storing movies then FAT32 with delayed write off is the best option.

It is fairly safe to yank FAT32, obviously if you are saving a word doc or something then you would wait a bit and maybe even close word. I close almost everything but windows cry's because PA is writing to the disk when windows shuts down. Which is why I want a commandline close for PA.

I have seen people lose sector 0 or something like that, i.e. the partition disappears. All you do is use bootitng to recover the partition. It is pretty rare and I recon they had dodgy controllers/sticks and stuff as well.

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