#windows 7 safely remove hardware

But all our lives, we know that the best practice for this, is to find the 'Safely Remove Hardware' or 'Eject' button in the task bar before removing our external media. Should you 'Safely Remove' your USB drives? However, the 'Safely Remove Hardware' option can show you a pop-up that says the drive is still in use, and to close all programs before removing it. At this point, it's a matter of "better safe than sorry", so if you aren't fond of hitting 'Safely Remove Hardware', then the least you can do is close all programs or windows that directly involve your external drive. TL;DR So, is it safe to skip the 'Safely Remove' option altogether when your file transfer is done? -- Probably. The 'Safely Remove' option still gives you the added assurance that it's actually safe --  no more programs are using your external drive, and you're good to go. Read more in our articles including "What happens when you DON'T 'Safely Remove' your USB drive?" and "Windows 7 Preview: Less of the Same".