Solved Is it possible to hot plug usb hard drive in windows 11 ?


William654

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Is it possible to hot plug usb hard drive in windows 11 ? is there settings for this ?
 

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Usually doing that is the same for all types of USB-connected drives. Plugging in a drive should bring up a prompt/pop-up asking how you want to treat it, what you want to do such as open File Explorer. There must be more to the question.
 

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Yep. Been like that since windows 7. I mean the whole "Safety Remove hardware and media Eject" icon should not be around and I don't see why Microsoft still has it. It's completely safe to remove any USB as long as you know the file transfer has completed
 

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problem that there is sometime data in the cache still need to be written
 

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The key is the part about "as you know the file transfer has completed", the reason the Safely Remove is still around as there is no visual notification Windows is through working with the data on it, cleared it from cache. I use removable drives a lot and after finished and click the icon I frequently have to it a couple 3 times for Windows to get finished with it. Basically it's just Windows protecting us from our own foibles.
 

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The key is the part about "as you know the file transfer has completed", the reason the Safely Remove is still around as there is no visual notification Windows is through working with the data on it, cleared it from cache.
True, but it's not much help if one doesn't use it.
 

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You can just turn off caching on a per drive basis using device manager. There are also methods to commit cache contents to disk that work in a command prompt and PowerShell prompt, but they are really not needed these days.
Or is the original question about SATA hotplug devices?
 

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I seem to have noticed, if you merely unplug a USB stick without doing a reject, and do that often enough > upon plugging in you get a 'need to scan this drive' pop up message. That makes me doing a reject before unplugging any USB devices.
 

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I checked the 'Quick removal' issue with my Samsung phone, the results are different for W10 and W11.

On my W10 machine > Device Manager > Disk drives > Samsung phone > Policies tab > Quick removal (default) (y)

However,

On my W11 machine > Device Manager > Portable Devices > Samsung phone > there is no 'Policies' tab, there is no 'Safely remove' > I powered off the Samsung phone before unplugging it (n)

Is powering off the phone an unnecessary precaution?
Is there a better solution?

(and no, I am not talking about charging the phone battery, I am talking about a phone-to-computer connection where File Explorer on the computer can access the Internal Storage of the phone)

Edit: In hindsight, maybe I should have, in order to be perfectly safe, shut down both phone and W11 computer before disconnecting the phone from the W11 computer.

Luckily, I normally don't connect my phone to my W11 computer but it is an open issue nonetheless.
 
Last edited:

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What I do with the stubbron message that say

This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again.

and I actually closed explorer
 

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    MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI
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    RX 6800 XT
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    BENQ and AOC QHD 120Hz
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I found this solution and I tried it work

Code:
mountvol g: /p
 

My Computer

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  • OS
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    MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI
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    RX 6800 XT
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    Creative Sound Blaster Z
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BENQ and AOC QHD 120Hz
    Screen Resolution
    QHD
    Hard Drives
    2TB Intel 660p and 2TB Sabrent Rokect 4 plus nvme, 4TB HDD HGST
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    Corsair RM750
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    Bloody rage
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    Water cooling gamdias 240
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    razer ornata
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    razer da v2
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