Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware
USB Disk Ejector: It's free and does what it says
by Simon Kerbel Dec 27th 2007
Who says there's no truth in advertising? Case in point: a piece of software called USB Disk Ejector. What does the software do, you might ask? It ejects disks that are connected via USB.Feature-wise, the USB Disk Ejector program is very similar to USB Safely Remove. One of the main differences is the price: the USB Disk Ejector is available as a free download (though donations are requested).
The USB Disk Ejector can be run as a non-visual command line program or a normal GUI program. The command line options are more manifold, and include the ability to:
* Eject the drive that the program is running from.
* Eject a drive by specifying a drive letter.
* Eject a drive by specifying a drive name.
* Eject a drive by specifying a partial drive name.
When run in the GUI, you can quickly eject USB devices with a mouse click or keyboard press.
So what's the advantage of this software over the normal right-click "safely remove this device?" For one, you won't get that annoying and supremely unhelpful dialog bubble, "you can now safely remove this device." Also, the command line utility gives you access to ejecting options without having to leave the keyboard.
The program has been tested and verified working on XP and Vista, but should run on older Windows versions as well. Happy downloading!
Thanks, Jeton!
After spending the better part of an hour on 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Suprchrgd said 6:11PM on 12-27-2007
Interesting app, but is it needed? I have never, never, ever had a problem just removing a USB drive from an XP SP2 box. Granted, I know jack about Vista, so it might be useful for that.
Has anyone else had problems or corruption removing a USB device from XP, SP2? If you aren't running SP2, why the heck not?
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Peter said 6:54PM on 12-27-2007
I was thinking the same thing. I NEVER manually eject a USB drive. I just wait until there is no data being transferred or applications running and then pull it out.
z0iid said 8:15PM on 12-27-2007
some people optimize their devices for performance rather than quick removal. (you were aware this is an option, right?) by default, yes, most usb devices are set for quick removal, and pulling it out rarely causes any problems. mp3 players, ipods, etc - are often optimized for performance. and you should "safely remove" the device.
Isaac Rabinovitch said 10:53PM on 12-27-2007
The risk is pretty low, but it's not zero. It's one of those just-because-it's-never-happened situations.
The big problem with the "remove safely" tray applet is that it's easy to remove the wrong device by mistake. For some strange reason, my tablet's internal WiFi card is seen as "removable", and if I'm not careful, I end up disabling it when I'm trying to disconnect my MP3 player. USB Disk Ejector neatly solves the problem: not only is its GUI easier to use, but it doesn't even list non-storage devices.
bgbennyboy said 8:24PM on 12-27-2007
As a general rule, you should never just remove a USB drive without safely removing it. It can lead to data corruption/loss, especially if the drive is optimised for performance rather than quick removal in Windows. Of course that's not true in all cases as you two have said.
In general the app is used for three main purposes:
Managing many USB devices/drives (some users apparently have as many as 8).
Quickly ejecting a drive via a shortcut.
Removing a drive in a portable fashion. I.e. putting the app on a USB data stick and launching it from a portable apps/pstart menu so that the menu closes and the drive is ejected with one click.
Another reason that people use it is that its silent by default. By which I mean that the balloon tip 'now safe to remove' doesn't show in XP and the irritating 'safe remove' dialog box doesn't show in Vista. If you're dealing with many usb devices the Vista dialog box can quickly become annoying.
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bgbennyboy said 8:40PM on 12-27-2007
As a general rule, you should never just remove a USB drive without safely removing it. It can lead to data corruption/loss, especially if the drive is optimised for performance rather than quick removal in Windows. Of course that's not true in all cases as you two have said.
In general the app is used for three main purposes:
Managing many USB devices/drives (some users apparently have as many as 8).
Quickly ejecting a drive via a shortcut.
Removing a drive in a portable fashion. I.e. putting the app on a USB data stick and launching it from a portable apps/pstart menu so that the menu closes and the drive is ejected with one click.
Another reason that people use it is that its silent by default. By which I mean that the balloon tip 'now safe to remove' doesn't show in XP and the irritating 'safe remove' dialog box doesn't show in Vista. If you're dealing with many usb devices the Vista dialog box can quickly become annoying.
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Kevin said 8:41PM on 12-27-2007
I've been using xplorer2 (squared) for the past few years and am very happy with it http://www.zabkat.com . There's a free lite version and a paid version which I use.
For USB drives A43 is the best choice because it's a self contained exe
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Dodfr said 3:28AM on 12-28-2007
Just one thing, a lot of people seems to not know (or think about) is the LEFT click on the tray icon instead of right click, the left click do not open the "big" eject dialog but only a small popup menu showing removable devices on which you can click to eject.
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grant.robertson said 10:04AM on 12-28-2007
From what I understand, USB Disk Ejector can also force removal, and even on a disk optimized for quick removal, some programs aren't friendly and can cause the "This device cannot be safely stopped" message, which leads you on a hunt for which application to close. It's pretty frustrating when you just want to get out of the office, without completely shutting down your laptop.
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zuner said 12:50PM on 12-28-2007
The horrible Vista again fails to improve and requires an additional click instead of an unobstrusive balloon, so this is useful on Vista.
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Neil said 2:41PM on 12-28-2007
USB Safely Remove does something I've wanted for a long time - tells me what processes have locked my external 400GB drive so that I cannot unmount it. It's worth every cent of $20 for this alone! (USB Disk Ejector doesn't do this)
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Junk Buster said 2:06AM on 2-13-2008
There are many reasons for or against using XP with service pack 2. It is a lose/win situation.
With SP2, you get better firewall, better support of wireless routers, support for drives over 137GB + miscellaneous fixes including usb 2 support for some usb devices.
But downsides to SP2 are that it is MUCH slower than without it, & it can also crash software that you use regularly. Also, SP2 can crash some laptop or pc systems that work fine with the normal XP with OUT SP2.
In addition, am finding that it is becoming increasingly difficult to run seemingly simple programs as they keep on, you must have dot net 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, java, flash, shockwave, windows installer update, direct X 9, etc etc.
Granted, it would not be so bad if everything were backwards compatible. That is to say, if you can scrap dot.net and just remove the other versions.
But since programs are coded for 1.1 and others for 2, and others for 3, you end up having to install 3 or 4 versions just to run all the programs you need to.
I am sick personally, of all the upgrade this, upgrade that & simply wish for the day when they can be through with "upgrades".
After all, you can do all you want to a pc but the basic file contents has always been and always will be: Audio, Documents, Pictures, Games, Video + your miscellaneous updates/settings/utilities.
There has been such an appalling lack of standards & with the Vista & DX 10, in addition to Vista sucking, game producers are going to produce DX for Vista, etc etc, and XP users will be forced to upgrade to vista simply because there is no DX 10 version for XP.
Maybe I will just ditch windows altogether and go with Ubuntu. It is free, simple, works, & doesn't bug you about updates, updates, updates. In addition, it can be run from cd before you install it.
Have actually used Ubuntu live disk to repair a harddisk that was unreadable from windows laptop that would bluescreen before windows loaded, before your xp disk could load with utilities for fixing it, etc etc.
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