Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 9 down vote favorite
2

How I can safely remove a USB external drive?

Ubuntu 12.10 does not come with this option, only to "Unmount" the disk, but not "Eject".

enter image description here

I have tried both USB sticks and with my external hard drive.

share|improve this question
1  
You only need to unmount usb flash drives, but for actually spinning down external hard disks using udisks, see askubuntu.com/questions/56270. – Mik Oct 21 '12 at 11:37
2  
Thanks dude, but I don't want to use the command-line for a simple action that was enabled in older versions Ubuntu and disappeared in the new. This is frustrating. – gabeweb Oct 21 '12 at 17:14
I am running gnome shell, and when I go to the notification area, I can "Eject" my USB stuff. I don't know what this answer is worth to you, but I just wanted to say, it seems possible. – Dr_Bunsen Nov 2 '12 at 14:34

6 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

There seems to be a bug report about the missing option.

@k-k-patel Even if "eject" and "safely remove" are virtually the same for external hard drives, none of the two are available. Only "unmount" is offered.

@hari @isoma No "unmount" and "eject/safely remove" are not the same and even for an external hard drive "eject/safely remove" is not subsumed by "unmount". For instance, consider a drive with two partitions. If the "user" unmounts one of them, the other one will remain mounted, and, as a result, if the user unplugs the drive, they face a data loss on the second partition. On the other hand, if the user "ejects/safely removes" the first partition, both will get unmounted.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

To safely remove i.e. disconnect an external USB drive you need to manually unmount all of its partitions (represented by 'drive icons'):

either in Unity Launcher

enter image description here

or in Nautilus

enter image description here

In the example above: to remove my Hitachi external USB drive I have to unmount all of the partitions on the said drive. To make things easier when formatting my drive I named (labelled) all of its partitions so that the names (labels) begin with 'HIT'.

For further reading please refer to the bug report (the lack of either "Safely remove" or "Eject" is a bug in Ubuntu 12.10):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udisks2/+bug/1067876

Don't forget to mark 'This bug affects me' in the upper portion of the page.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

'Eject' works same as safely remove

share|improve this answer
5  
@k-k-patel No, in external hard drive don't shows that option: link Only 'open' and 'unmount'. – gabeweb Oct 21 '12 at 6:51
up vote 0 down vote

Unmount and eject are the same. If you need to check it, Open Terminal after eject/Unmount the drive and type this command : mount You wont be able to see the device if it's unmounted

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

“Eject” is for drives with removable media, like a DVD drive. An external hard drive does not have any eject mechanism.

“Unmount” is the correct operation to use before you unplug the drive.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

My toy project can help on this problem:

https://github.com/fenrrir/bdin

This is a appindicator for ubuntu that uses udisks for detach device

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.