How to safely remove the USB drive from a Chromebook computer

You may have heard about how to safely remove a USB memory stick from a Windows computer to protect the data on it, but what about a laptop running Chrome OS?

Before we talk about how to safely remove a USB memory stick from a Chromebook, it's probably worth finding out why this is really important. The main reason is the same as when using a Windows computer, which is the possibility of losing recorded data on the memory card after you suddenly unplug it from the computer. So, in theory you need to ask the operating system for permission to unlink the memory card before removing it from your computer to keep the data on the memory card safe.

If you know for sure that there are not any tasks that are interacting with the USB memory stick, you can remove it immediately from the USB port of the computer, this can be detected via an LED (if any) at on the USB memory stick, if the LED is blinking then it is possible that the data on the card is being accessed. But not always USB memory stick also integrated LED.

In principle, you should not remove the USB memory stick from the computer while it is in the process of recording data from the computer to the card. Therefore, the 'Eject' option simply ensures that you do not lose any data and the processes for interacting with the tag are closed before removing it from the machine.

How to remove a USB memory stick from a Chromebook

Removing the USB memory stick on Chromebooks differs from other platforms in that you need to open the "File" app to perform this task.

Click the App Launcher icon in the lower left corner to see all the apps installed on your ChromeBook, then navigate to the File app and open it.

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In this file manager application, you will see your USB memory stick listed as external storage on the left menu. All you need to do is click on the Eject icon to safely remove the USB from your computer.

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Alternatively, you can right-click on the USB drive entry and select "Eject device".

If your USB memory stick has a built-in status LED, the LED will blink a few times and then turn off. You can now safely remove the USB memory stick from your computer. If the USB flash drive has no LED, wait a few seconds before unplugging it from your Chromebook.