Eject MJ from USB

rose · Post by **rose** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:17 am

I cannot eject the MJ drives using the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the tray; I get an error that it is being used by another program.

Is it safe just to leave the MJ attached and turn off my computer at night?

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:34 am

rose wrote:I cannot eject the MJ drives using the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the tray; I get an error that it is being used by another program.

Is it safe just to leave the MJ attached and turn off my computer at night?

Yes. As far as I know there are absolutely no adverse effects for leaving it in with the computer off.

There is another way to safely "remove" your device. RIGHT click on an empty space on the toolbar at the bottom of your Windows screen. On the menu that pops up, click on "Start Task Manager". In that window, click on the "Processes" tab. Look for magicjack.exe or magicjack.exe*32, highlight it, and then click on the "end process" tab at the bottom right and MagicJack will quit and you can safely remove your device.

There is a theory that continually removing the device without using the "safely remove" function or the method I outlined above will actually cause the device to fail, so you are better off leaving it in, then just pulling it out, I believe.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:45 pm

There is a theory that continually removing the device without using the "safely remove" function or the method I outlined above will actually cause the device to fail, so you are better off leaving it in, then just pulling it out, I believe.

It is only a theory indeed. I pulled out the device hundreds of times with no ill effects, now I am in the 3rd year with the dongle. It is true, though that it does not hurt to leave it plugged in.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 3:39 pm

cell14 wrote: It is only a theory indeed. I pulled out the device hundreds of times with no ill effects, now I am in the 3rd year with the dongle. It is true, though that it does not hurt to leave it plugged in.

I think it's tied into the flash-drive removal theory. I've yanked out so many of those without using the safely remove function, that I should have had some of them fail too. I generally don't bother doing anything special with the MJ device either.

I would almost think that grabbing the not so firm case time after time to pull it out would create more risk of breaking the device then not "safely" removing it. Although when I took apart my old device to play with it, it wasn't the easiest thing to get open.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:23 pm

I would almost think that grabbing the not so firm case time after time to pull it out would create more risk of breaking the device then not "safely" removing it.

That's why I use that dreaded extension cord-with no ill effects either...

hsweiss · Post by **hsweiss** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:55 pm

The safely remove stuff is typically for mounted file systems (e.g., flash drives that look like disks). The operating system may employ delayed writes - that is, you write to the device but the I/O is queued up and doesn't happen immediately. You use the safely remove stuff in order to ensure that the queue is drained and that no data is lost if the write is delayed. This is the moral equiv of mount/umount in UNIX/Linux.

The hardware will not be harmed by simply pulling it out - USB is made to be inserted and removed with power applied.

Since MJ is not a read/write file system (yes, I know it shows up as two drive IDs), it can simply be pulled out w/o harm. The software recognizes via a USB device reset that the dongle has gone away and shuts itself down.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:40 pm

hsweiss wrote:The safely remove stuff is typically for mounted file systems (e.g., flash drives that look like disks). The operating system may employ delayed writes - that is, you write to the device but the I/O is queued up and doesn't happen immediately. You use the safely remove stuff in order to ensure that the queue is drained and that no data is lost if the write is delayed. This is the moral equiv of mount/umount in UNIX/Linux.

The hardware will not be harmed by simply pulling it out - USB is made to be inserted and removed with power applied.

Since MJ is not a read/write file system (yes, I know it shows up as two drive IDs), it can simply be pulled out w/o harm. The software recognizes via a USB device reset that the dongle has gone away and shuts itself down.

It's good to know. My powered USB hub (the one recommended in here and by MJ), turned out to be such a poorly made piece of crap, that the slightest bump of the dongle was causing a disconnect of my MJ. So in the last 2 months I have probably done about 50 un-safe removals by accident.

And yes, like one of Pavlov's dogs, I finally just unhooked the hub. It is nice to learn a new trick every 5 years or so.

The interesting think is that the last time I had a "serious" chat with MJ customer service(?), about 4 months ago, the expert(?) had me stop the process before removing and reinserting the device. Should have known then to do just about the exact opposite of what they suggest.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:01 pm

My powered USB hub (the one recommended in here and by MJ), turned out to be such a poorly made piece of crap

I use powered usb hub/ laptop stand combo from Logitec and it works great.( Logitec's wireless keyboard is a different story, a true piece of dung).

SIR****TMG · Post by **SIR****TMG** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 5:36 pm

I leave mine in all the time

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