Windows 10 Switches to 'Quick Removal' for USB Drives

With the release of Windows 10 version 1809, Microsoft is changing the way in which its operating system deals with external storage media, meaning we'll no longer be urged to "safely remove hardware" by default.

As Betanews reports, Microsoft offers two policies regarding external storage media: Quick Removal and Better Performance. Quick Removal allows you to safely eject a USB drive without fear of losing any data, but the performance of the drive is impacted to allow for this. Better Performance means the drive will perform better when plugged in, but at the cost of requiring a safe removal process be followed in order to ensure no data loss when unplugging it.

The default until now is for any USB drive to use the Better Performance policy, which is why we all see that Safely Remove Hardware icon pop-up in the Windows 10 notification area. However, with version 1809, Quick Removal will become the default instead.

You can opt to use the Better Performance policy by changing a drive's properties in Disk Manager (and enable write caching for the best experience), but for the majority of users Quick Removal makes more sense.

:story: PC Magazine