iPod and school pc's

Hey, I got a question about plugging in my iPod on a pc at school that doesn't show the taskbar and therefor also won't show the icon to safely remove hardware. I had a discussion with one of my fellow students and we got stuck with the question when you log-out of the pc (Using the Norton network system) the iPod would automaticly be ejected..

Does anyone know how more about this issue, because according to my fellow student a iPod could be emptied when you don't eject it before removing it.

(talking about the 3G iPod connected to a USB 2.0 port)

#239561

i think that fellow student is wrong

#239563

Just go to My Computer and right click the iPod's icon, and select "Eject". Although I've never heard of damage coming from unplugging the iPod without ejecting it, I wouldn't recommend it.

#239574

As long as the iPod is not in the middle of transfering or writing data, no damage will occur.

I decided to test it last night and did not get any errors. I even unplugged it during a transfer and it didn't harm the iPod. It did trash the file, but that was expected.

An iPod is treated the same as any other USB mass storage device. They are considered "hot plug" devices.

Meaning you can plug and unplug at any time.

You know those little USB storage key chains and such... same principle.

#239809

I've unplugged my FireWire 2G iPod without properly ejecting it many times (I'm impatient) and have had no problems. RJ is right. As long as it is not writing or transfering any data, nothing bad will happen.

#239812

there is something called a "delayed write" which windows sometimes does (It dosen't actually write to the disk until you eject it) and if that happens and you pull the plug you'll get a message saying that the delyed write failed.

As longas you weren't writing to critical areas of the ipod or altering its itunesdb or whatever i'm sure it will be fine. maybe whatever document you tired to copy won't be there, though.

Alos, the error message pops up as a bubble from the taskbar, so if there is no taskbar, I don't know if you'll evfen get the error message.

#239834

The delayed write "feature" in Windows has a max timeout of only a few minutes.

Windows will also only use the delayed write "feature" if the drive and system is being used heavily.

It will wait for idle time and then perform the write. I hate this "feature".

Bad memory can make the delayed write "feature" do very bad things.

Like I said... I hate this "feature".

A majority of the time it writes the data immediatly.

#239870

Oh well, I guess it wouldn't harm the iPod... the guy said he had seen it happen on his previous school in America, where they pulled out iPod's out of Mac's and they would be completely empty.

#240032

that won't happen unless there was nothing on it to begin with...

#240068