ghacks Technology News

USB Safely Remove [Christmas Giveaway]

USB storage devices and other devices that are connected via USB to a PC have grown in popularity over the last years. Large USB storage devices, card readers, cell phones that connect via USB or digital cameras usually use USB to establish the connection and exchange data with the computer system. The Windows operating system has not kept pace with the influx of USB devices which becomes especially apparent when managing multiple connected USB devices at the same time.

Many USB devices are listed as USB Mass Storage Device in Windows which makes it extremely difficulty to distinguish between those devices.

The above screenshot visualizes the problems that many users have when trying to disconnect one of their devices from the PC system. It would help if Windows would offer the option to hide certain devices that a user does not want to disconnect from the computer but that option is not given as well.

USB Safely Remove deals with that problem and many more that users experience when dealing with USB devices. One major change is that the software program will display the actual names of the devices instead of USB Mass Storage Device which makes it much easier to identify the right device. Even better; It also displays a drive icon in the dialog so that items can be visually distinguished as well.

But USB Safely Remove provides access to additional options besides the very handy USB identification. Computer users can rename devices and change the device icons which might be helpful if multiple devices of the same type or of the same developer are connected to a PC. It can also hide devices so that they do not appear in the removal dialog window at all, great for storage devices that should keep the connection at all times.

Users who prefer to use the computer keyboard can utilize keyboard shortcuts to browse a drive’s contents, stop a device or activate a device again that has not been removed from the system yet. Available are one global shortcut and device specific shortcuts.

Sometimes USB devices cannot be disconnected from the PC which can usually be attributed to a process that is locking a file on the USB drive (e.g. a program that has been executed on the USB drive). USB Safely Remove will provide extensive information about the processes and files that prevent that the USB device can be stopped.

Five Options are provided in the cannot stop device window:

  • To know what processes prevent the device from being stopped
  • To stop the device again – the program tries ejecting the device once again. You have to close all listed processes or files opened by them beforehand.
  • To forcibly stop the device – the program closes all files opened by the listed processes on the device, leaving all the processes running and tries stopping the device again.
  • To close the processes and stop the device again – the program closes all listed processes and tries stopping the device again.
  • To know what files opened the process – just press “+” sign before file name and you will find out what certain files opened the process

Another interesting option that USB Safely Remove offers is the ability to run programs after connecting a device, before or after stopping the device and after removing it from the system.

This offers a lot of possibilities like running the encryption software True-Crypt when a device gets connected, a data backup or file synchronization before the device gets stopped.

Other features of USB Safely Remove include:

  • Command Line tool to work with the program from the command line
  • Automatically hide empty drives
  • Ejecting memory cards
  • Returning devices back after they have been stopped without physically reconnecting the device first.

Christmas Giveaway

We have 20 licenses of USB Safely Remove. Just leave a comment below which will automatically include you in the draw.

Raju us giving away 10 WinRar licenses.

Related Articles:

Ghacks Christmas Giveaway: USB Safely Remove
Quickly Remove USB Devices
SyncPod For Windows Review And Giveaway [Ghacks Christmas Giveaway]
Video Converter for Windows Review And Giveaway [Ghacks Christmas Giveaway]
DVDFab DVD Ripper Review And Giveaway [Ghacks Christmas Giveaway]

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Tuesday December 22, 2009 -
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Responses so far:

  1. Andrew Collin says:

    count me in for this.

  2. Besstheone says:

    Hi my license just expired

  3. paul says:

    A good software that do what the similar software can’t do.

  4. Dragos says:

    Count me in for this…

  5. Trevor says:

    I used this before a messed my system up and it is brilliant. Hopefully lady luck will come to Africa.

  6. Chris says:

    This would be incredibly useful for me as I use a lot of USB devices both at home and at the office. I really hope to be lucky enough to win a license. Thanks!

  7. ven0m says:

    I would like to win the licence, because I need to monitor my usb devices.

  8. Paulo says:

    I would like to use this program to know which process is preventing the safe removal of my usb discs.
    Thanks.

  9. Cindy Johnson says:

    Would be great to have a license. Thanks for the giveaway.

  10. talshl says:

    Could I get one USB safely remove?

  11. 5000 says:

    Cool Cool, finish with windows poor tool.
    Can I?

  12. wombat says:

    yeah.
    me wants one!

  13. eee says:

    This is very useful. The tool included with Windows is lame, this is a fine replacement.

  14. doddymobile says:

    it would be great to get one, USB Safely Remove can stop usb device which hidden. like usb modem, amazing …

  15. FullMax says:

    Wow, my preciousssssss^^

    How come nobody thought of this before???

  16. Nam Ky says:

    Thanks for sharing :)

  17. Igor says:

    Nice. I hope I”ll get the license.

  18. Aang says:

    The best USB device manager that I ever know. “Return Device Back!” is my favorite feature. Not to mention other great features like easily recognize a device in a snap, real device names and ability to rename them, etc.
    I hope I can win a license this time.
    Thanks.

  19. Arpit Jain says:

    Awesome ….. :P

  20. Zorro says:

    Nice thank you very much.

  21. dcotejr says:

    I use an older version – very handy program. Look forward to an updated version!

  22. Piskvor says:

    Looks useful :)

  23. Kevin says:

    Thanks for the giveaway! Merry Christmas!

  24. Jim Carter says:

    I’ve used this program before and my copy expired. I definitely miss its functionality and would certainly welcome another copy.

  25. Chrille says:

    I really want to win this. :)

  26. mikey says:

    USB Safely Remove is really good.

    I tried it out once and hooked after that. I always just plug out without safely remove because Window build in safely remove features is too slow, problematic ( always unable to stop saying device is in use etc ) and sometimes even crash.

    I hope I can win a license key so that I can continue using it. Thanks in advance.

  27. subgrampus says:

    Would be pleased to receive a license for “USB Safely Remove [Christmas Giveaway]” as a Xmas gift! Happy Holidays!!

  28. ibheck says:

    I’ve been using the trial version would be very nice if I can be one of full version

  29. Raymond says:

    Looks like the perfect solution to prevent ejecting the wrong device. Also like the fact it can help trace the program/process that keeps it from ejecting safely. Here’s hoping for a freebie license!

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