When I have inserted a SD memory card, I have the possibility for "ejecting" the card after which it can be safely removed.
I donot understand why this possibility does not exist with an USB HDD. I thought that just removing such drive gives the chance of damaging it.
You can safely remove(Eject) by right clicking from the taskbar icon as in my second snip.
Thanks for this solution which, after many years of PC usage, was still unknown to me. I always right-clicked on the drive thumbnail in computer, which gave the eject option for the SD drive, but not for the HDD.
Under settings, I had to check ""Windows Explorer, Safely remove hardware and eject media" to become visible in the taskbar.
Many thanks!
You can set up a USB memory stick or SD reader etc to quickly remove it without using the safe removal option:
Quickly remove USB devices without using Safe Removal - CNET
The main thing with Safe Removal is to assure Windows is through writing to it or there will be a risk of corruption of data.
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