Set removable drives for "Quick Removal"
Widnows Vista, Windows 7

If you have an external hard drive or other removable drive, such as a USB flash drive, that you use on your desktop as well as your laptop or another computer, you'll find this tip a time-saver. The proper way to remove a removable drive is to click the "Safely remove hardware" icon in your system tray and wait until Windows tells you it's safe to remove the device. This prevents data loss caused by removing a drive when Windows is write caching the drive. (Write caching speeds up your drive - slightly.) Sometimes when you're in a hurry you might forget to click the "Safely remove hardware" icon and remove the drive, which can cause data loss. So there are two reasons to use this tip, if you often disconnect your external hard drive or other removable drive.

How to set your removable drives up for "Quick Removal" and avoid having to go through the "Safely remove hardware" routine:

1. Click the Start button and type Device Manager in the start menu search
2. Open Device Manager
3. Expand the list of disk drives by clicking the "+" next to "Disk drives"
4. Find the removable drive you want to set up for Quick Removal
5. Right click it and choose "Properties"
6. Click the "Policies" tab and choose the option "Optimize for quick removal" (see screen shot below) and click OK.
7. Close the device manager (you'll have to contract the list of drives first by clicking the "minus" sign before you can close device manager).

Now you can safely remove your external hard drives or USB flash drives without going through the "Safely remove hardware" routine. Saves time and prevents possible data loss if you're in a hurry and forget about using the "Safely remove hardware" feature.