Can I disconnect a USB drive while copying is paused in Windows 8?
As you all probably know by now, Windows 8 consolidates all simultaneous file copy operations into one single dialog. Also, wonder of wonders, you can now pause any of the operations as well!
What I want to know is, if you pause a file copy to/from an external drive, does Windows complain if you try to safely remove the drive? What about if you just disconnect the drive (when write caching's disabled of course) and then reconnect it to the same USB port and provided it has the same drive letter as before - does the copy continue normally and is the file copied properly?
I have Windows 8 only in a VM as of now (so that adds an extra USB Virtualization Connector Driver layer and who knows what else), plus for some reason none of my working USB sticks are at hand and I do not want to risk testing with my hard drives that contain my backups and other precious data. So is anyone with a proper non-VM non-VHD full Windows 8 RTM install willing to test this and let us know?
Also, I could not find any official word on whether this sort of operation is supported, or whether Microsoft clearly recommends no drive disconnection in such a scenario. If any official documentation can be found about this feature beyond what's there in this blog post, please do share.
You can Safely Remove after pausing the USB data transfer so there is no chance of corrupting your device partition or your data.
Edit: Sorry I forgot to mention I disconnected the device and reconnected it and resumed the copy process without any problem.
Update: After starting the transfer I paused the copy process, ejected the USB drive, inserted another USB drive with different files, disconnected that drive as well, reconnected the first one again and finally restarted the copy process and it got resumed without any problem.
As you asked in the comments about how the data transfer might be affected if the drive letter is changed, in that case when you try to resume the process Windows prompts you that the source file is missing and displays the following three options:
Try again
Skip
Cancel
If you press the Try again button it restarts the process from the beginning.
I have only USB 2.0 ports so I can't tell you about any change when USB 3.0 ports are used.
It will not damage the drive, but at the same time, there is
- No guarantee that you will be able to resume the copy
- Assuming that you pause the copy file mid-file, that file might simply be as good as junk.
You will be able to remove the drive safely, but that's about all you can be guaranteed.