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I frequently have to use the university's computers, however, they have blocked the "safely remove hardware program" for everyone (except admin). Is there a different way I can safely remove my USB thumb drives?

Corsair
2011-06-26 02:09:00
It depends on if the USB drive uses a cache for high speed access.  Removing without writing the cache to the USB Drive will cause data lose and possible corruption of the whole drive.
Victor Ong
2011-06-18 23:50:00
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You could pull out the usb after the computer is turned off.
2011-06-18 03:20:00
Use Unlocker right clock on the drive and click unlocker then unlock all.There's also a portable version if you don't want to install.http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/
FIDELIS
2011-06-10 15:32:00
Hello, you can eject the usb drive from the My Computer/Computer area.-- click on start-- click or double click on Computer/My Computer-- highlight the usb drive-- right click and select eject 
Graphixter Media
2011-06-10 00:15:00
Its rare that USB got corrupted by just pulling out. If you dont have any other option then you can just pull it out...Graphixter MediaWebsite Design & Development Companyhttp://graphixter.com
Mike
2011-06-09 20:49:00
Although the above is not wrong I do agree that you should use the Safely Remove function or something similar just to be safe! Personally I have seen a lot of USB Sticks getting corrupted by just pulling them out ~ this goes from data loss up to the point where the USB Stick was useless.I myself had 16GB Voyager GT which was damaged to the point where you could only format 2MB of it even with tools like the HP USB Format Tool and I always made sure that no write operation is active (I even close all Explorer windows showing it's contents). I'm using the safely remove function ever since...My first guess would be to try the Rightclick > Eject function or try out the tool posted by ha14
2011-06-09 19:33:00
Try EjectUSB - version 1.6http://download.cnet.com/EjectUSB/3000-2094_4-10904377.htmlshould be installed in the USB key, never used it myself so as always do a trial on some usb key.
2011-06-09 18:30:00
Just pull it out.Unless your drive has moving parts(e.g. a disc drive), the safely remove hardware thing is not needed. All it does is make sure all the data has been written to the flash drive. You just need to wait a minute (or until the light stops flashing, if your drive has one), then your safe to pull it out.If your not in a hurry ask one of the uni admins about it, preferable while they're on a break ;) then suggest to them that blocking the program isn't a good idea. 
Jeffery Fabish
2011-06-09 18:30:00
To be honest, I never use the safely remove feature. All that application does is force any transmitting data and input/output to be stopped, so in the same logic as long as you've stopped transferring data you should be fine.