Shorcut to safely remove hardware - would be very nice for iPod Owners... :)

Every time I want to disconnect my iPod from the computer I have 2 options open the Explorer go to the ipod right click the icon and then eject or go trough the "safely remove hardware" icon on systray and after the click eject, ussualy I have this icon hidden so it's to many clicks when leaving the house in a hurry! :p

So what I would like is a icon placed on the true launch bar, that can be configured for a specific harddrive letter and with a simple click disconnects the drive, if it's not connected nothing would happen, maybe in the mouse over tip would be displayed the status of the drive.

I f anyone knows a way to do this or someother program feel free to say so.

After searching the web I dind't find any so for the first time I ask for the talents of yuri to resolve this problem for me

PS: Maybe this should be a true small tools Thread?

omg don't tell me you can't just unplug ipod directly.

It does seem like a reasonable idea.

I got my mum a Sony USB keyring drive. Six months later,
it died due to not being 'safely removed' one time.

"omg don't tell me you can't just unplug ipod directly."

No you can't, actually apple makes a strong point in that you can't remove it...

something about the database has to be closed\saved I really don't know exactly, but by mistake I removed the ipod and had to "restore" the drive meaning full format and firmware instalation so this pluggin would be nice!

This would work for other devices not just for iPod, I'm sure Every creative mp3 player, the new phillips player, and other usb\firewaire devices are in the same situation, just like mark76uk points out...

I'm also the owner of an iPod since about two weeks, and no, disconnecting is not good, with any storage device. With the initial firmware, I had Explorer crashes several times, had to reboot, after about 4 times I got errors on a few files. Luckily, Apple provides a nice format utility which worked great. It does show that disconnecting while it may be busy is bad. Should've thought about that a bit more before posting your comments IceCaveman .

With the new firmware it hasn't crashed yet btw, if you haven't got it already I really recommend it (also fixed a backlight issue for me ). Even though it may not harm the disk, I feel safer when I disconnect the hardware the propert way... conclusion: the disconnecting thing is a great idea!


I had no idea that Eject did the same, that might make it easier. A way to disconnect hardware in general might be a better idea though, as it still shows "this hardware was not properly disconnected" in Windows 2000, even though the iPod showed it was safe. I have no idea how to accomplish it yet, but I will start searching. If Yuri is too busy for such a plugin it can be easily done with an external application which allows a shortcut to it, that would be just as fine for me (as I can make that myself)... if I get any code working, I'll let you know...

I just expected ipod to be somehow better designed than this because it's so more expensive than other players but still has less features.

First; better design? You're talking about abrupt cable disconnection here, if the iPod is copying data at that moment any device would be happy if nothing is corrupted... sure, you can take it off when it's not doing anything (you can tell if it's busy by a flashing icon on the iPod), but it's not the safest way of doing it...

Second; more expensive? I don't know what you're comparing, but the Creative Zen with USB 2 is about the same price, at least here in the Netherlands...

And less features? Name one. The iPod has USB 2 and FireWire connectivity (so far the hard disk apparantly goes up to 5 MB/sec, which is not bad at all), On-the-Go playlists, a very clear display and excellent touch-sensitive keys, it's absolutely tiny (if you put it on top of a CD it fits inside easily), produces very little heat even after copying 8 GB of data and even has a note viewer, contact list and games on-board (the first two are very useful for looking something up, the latter is just to show off but it's fun nonetheless ). Plus, it's firmware is upgradable, so they can add fixes and even support for new file formats... furthermore, everything is packed with fine attention to details (caps and cableholders on every cable for example)... the combination of all of this is in my opinion worth it's price (if you are willing to pay that price of course)...



I realise this reply (and maybe the last) sounds a bit offensive; I don't mean to attack, so if you regard it that way, I'm sorry. Just defending my point of view with my knowledge of the iPod

you can get many brands of Zen now, the best one ZenXtra 60gb is much cheaper than 40gb iPod, it has at least double battery lifetime compared to ipod, can record mp3s directly and from radio if you buy the remote. it has much better sound quality, it does not get as insane amouth of finger prints as the ipod does, if you are good in your hands you can even upgrade your hard disk. cooler design, I like blue lights with silvery design more than the ugly white color, that btw gets yellow over time. the firmware of most nomads is upgradable to and the Zenxtras have finally big screens. and ofcourse ZENs have some EAX features and such nice audio related things. different from apple they waste more money on developing games and horrible software for it rather than having some decent sound as the Zen.

The iPod can record using external hardware (it can be used as a storage for digital cameras as well), the finger prints on the back are there but don't bother me (and the metal is a good cooling system), it's at least 50 grams lighter, design is a matter of taste (I prefer the clean design of the iPods). As far as the audio quality is concerned, I have yet to hear any difference. Though EAX is of course a Creative feature, the Equalizer in the iPod does a good job (it doesn't feature all the Arena effects, but they don't neccesarily add to the quality). It functions very well as a plug & play hard disk. The games may be a feature which is not neccesary, but the software is far from crap and navigating it is easy. There are some issues you mentioned which I can not answer simply because I don't know enough about both machines to make a good statement on them (battery lifetime, hard disk upgrade)... therefore I will not make those statements...


I have a feeling however that most arguments are based on opinions. I never ignored the Zen and it's features, I looked into it when deciding on an MP3 player, I just used it as a price comparison in my argument above. The current available Zens here are slightly cheaper, but no 60 GB or higher are listed. In the end, both have certain advantages, but that doesn't make the other one crap. I never said that about the Zen and I never will, I just think it's not "much more for a much lower price"...


What is this discussion about anyways? It started with the ability to disconnect hardware which was transferring data without data corruption. Can the iPod do that? No (it survived three out of 4 times then a format was needed which fully recovered it). Can the Zen do that? You tell me, but I think it won't do any better. Can any other portable disk do that? Nope.

The iPod may not suit your needs or requirements, but that doesn't make it a crappy piece of hardware. It surely suits my needs, and I couldn't be happier with it. If the Zen fits you, great!




Sorry Jolidog for hijacking this thread

Yap highjack on it's way...

No problem though... :p

I thing you're bought right in somethings and I disagree with other but all comes down to personal taste, amount of money available and availability on the country...

Jukebox Zen is great but here in portugal it's the same price of the iPod and xTra version is not even available on the official Portuguese site... anyway ZenxTra is here, philips has realesed their player finally some competition!

Apple in my opinin is making some mistakes, for one the external card reader from belkin is for photos, ok that's great what about other files on the card that are not on the DCM (something like that) folder? I don't thing they are copied witch really sucks for a 99 USD accessorie ( when it gets to portugal it will be like 120 or 130 euros...) I don't think I'm buying one! lol

Yap highjack on it's way...

No problem though... :p

I thing you're bought right in somethings and I disagree with other but all comes down to personal taste, amount of money available and availability on the country...

Agreed.

Jukebox Zen is great but here in portugal it's the same price of the iPod and xTra version is not even available on the official Portuguese site... anyway ZenxTra is here, philips has realesed their player finally some competition!

Same thing here, but I looked on the American Creative site and there it was...

Apple in my opinin is making some mistakes, for one the external card reader from belkin is for photos, ok that's great what about other files on the card that are not on the DCM (something like that) folder? I don't thing they are copied witch really sucks for a 99 USD accessorie ( when it gets to portugal it will be like 120 or 130 euros...) I don't think I'm buying one! lol

I doubt if this is Apple's fault or Belkin's fault, but I agree, they should definitely fix that. I don't think they accounted for people using their memory sticks that way though, especially since the iPod has much more storage space. All in all, it's great that Apple has software support for it, it's great they made a card reader, but for 123 euros (the price in the Netherlands) that would be a bit of a shame... haven't seen it or used it yet though (####, I've only known it since the 17th when the new firmware came out)...




To get back on-topic: I did find some code for ejecting removable drives using other ways than MCI (so it works for any drive, not just CD-ROMs)... disconnecting hardware is another issue though, and I have yet to find a way...

(####, I've only known it since the 17th when the new firmware came out)...

That's the day they were realesed on apples online store, before then it was just rumours...

I appreciate your interest in my suggestion! I would like some feedback form yuri but he probably has other thing's in mind...

I've found some information on iPodlounge forums about a small app called IpodRemove but no place to download (couple of dead links)... It would solve the problem for ipod users, don't know if it works on other devices...

Yeah, one dead link indeed . I've been using XPlay to access my iPod library without MusicMatch or iTunes (and to have it synchronize with WMP), and it too has a "Disconnect iPod" feature... but I don't think you can make a shortcut to it...


The search continues! A generic "Disconnect hardware" plugin would be great... time to dig even deeper into the huge Platform SDK me thinks...

Well, the ejecting is working from code... but under Windows 2000 this doesn't equal a full disconnection... the iPod shows it can be safely removed on it's display, the removable disk isn't shown anymore, but iPod Manager/Windows still shows it as connected and if you unplug it it'll display the "Device unsafely removed" dialog... as well as the delay in reconnecting it because Windows has trouble sorting out where it went...


So, it is safe to remove it, but not an ideal solution yet... I bet they sorted this out in XP, where it won't display anything, I'll check that out when I get home...

I use Xplay to but can't find a way to create a shorcut, I'm not a programer so reverse engeniere is out of the question for me... ???

Found in apple Faq's about ipod something interesting, they explicitly say don't use the eject shortcut on right click of drive, probably due to the problem you talk about, I'm using XP and the sane thing happens... So no correction form 2000 to XP on that!