Unmount Vs Eject

mechi

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What's the difference between unmount and eject? When I want to take out a usb drive which should I pick?
 


Normally umount is for fixed drives. ( Hard drives )
eject is for "removable" devices. DVD's, CD-ROMs, USB sticks, etc...

But another big difference is that often Linux (most Os's in fact)
lie to you. For example if you are using Nautilus or some GUI file manager,
it shows a blue line when you copy the file over. When the blue line
(or whatever color it may be) reaches 100%, you assume the file is copied.
But it isn't always. It's just copied to to a memory cache.

When the OS has more free time, it will "really" copy the file over to the
USB drive, (or whatever you are copying the file to). You can force the
disk to umount or eject before the file is actually fully copied over.

There are some tricks to make this not happen (turn off disk caching)
But if you've ever pulled the USB stick out after the blue line was finished,
but before "eject" gives you the "safe to remove", your file is likely corrupt
or missing.
 
This is one area Windows OS will always supersede Linux is safely removing usb drives / safely unmounting usb drives / safely ejecting usb drives.

I've had issues with Linux corrupting usb flash drives and don't ever recall usb flash drives getting corrupt using Windows.

Contrary to beliefs there are some things Windows OS does better than Linux.

And yes I know how the properly remove a usb flash drive in either OS.
 
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Interesting. I noticed that on some usb drives when I plug them into Windows I get a message saying there is a problem with it and to let Windows fix it although the usb drive seems to work just fine. Now I wonder if maybe it was caused by Linux. I have been using the "Eject" option when removing pen drives but the message that pops up is so quick I can't tell what it says.
 
I use linux and Mac Unmount and eject are the same thing, to disconnect a drive from the OS Network you are operating.

Davi
 
Interesting. I noticed that on some usb drives when I plug them into Windows I get a message saying there is a problem with it and to let Windows fix it although the usb drive seems to work just fine. Now I wonder if maybe it was caused by Linux. I have been using the "Eject" option when removing pen drives but the message that pops up is so quick I can't tell what it says.
Before I physically remove any usb device flash drive etc I'll open my File Manager and under Devices I'll locate the device which I'm wanting to physically remove and unmount the device and eject the device which are the options I'm given in MX-19 Linux.

@dos2unix is right on in post #3.
 
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