Safely removing printer?

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Socoder -> On Topic -> Safely removing printer?
Wed, 18 Aug 2010, 12:24
Afr0	Does anyone here have a printer/scanner? I have a Canon MP270 which I have until now just pulled the plug on whenever I wanted to disconnect it. It is connected through what appears to be a regular USB cable. The thing is; When it is connected, Windows 7 doesn't give me an option to disconnect it. It doesn't appear in the 'Connected Devices' toolbar on the taskbar, but is registered as a device in 'Units and Devices' (see image below). If I right click on the printer I get an option to 'Remove Device', but I am assuming this is not what I want. So... is it safe to just pull the plug on it? -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!
Wed, 18 Aug 2010, 12:31
JL235	I'd have thought 'remove device' is what you want, as it'll remove it from being connected. But tbh yes, (although your advised not to) it is perfectly safe to pull the plug as long as it's not in use. It's only if it's in use that you shouldn't remove the device. I knew someone who broke their mp3 player as it was unplugged whilst copying files.
Wed, 18 Aug 2010, 13:01
JL235	I'd also recommend turning off the printer before pulling the plug.
Wed, 18 Aug 2010, 18:50
mindstorm8191	As far as I know, so long as you're not in the middle of transferring data between your PC and whatever device you're pulling, Windows shouldn't have any trouble when you remove it. -=-=- Vesuvius web game
Wed, 18 Aug 2010, 23:33
spinal	Isn't the whole point of USB that you can just unplug it? The only thing I ever have concerns about are memory card readers or flash drives, even then I just pull them out. I only ever 'safely remove' a USB device if it causes problems when I don't, which I am happy to say, nothing I currently own does. I can't think of any negative side effect of unplugging a printer, it isn't like your going to corrupt the hard drive or anything. -=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 01:01
Stealth	You don't have to wait to remove it. As long as you aren't printing, it will be fine. That feature was created because Windows has an option to write data to the disk slowly and the remove disk option will wrap up any file write operations. You can't break the printer by unplugging the USB cord. That cord just transfers data. Don't worry about it so much. -=-=- Quit posting and try Google.
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 03:01
Afr0	Thanks guys!
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 09:14
JL235	On big high-end office printers it could cause issues as most of them contain hard disks.
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 09:53
Afr0	Pretty sure mine doesn't contain a harddisk...
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 09:59
waroffice	which printers have hard disks? Only thing i can think of are the all in one photocopiers that run on linux but you wouldnt really be using USB on it.
Thu, 19 Aug 2010, 10:20
JL235	You know the big office printer/photocopies you get? The ones that are so tall they go up to waist height? Pretty much every one holds a hard disk which caches every item it has ever copied/printed. But they will probably be networked rather then using USB to a PC.
Fri, 20 Aug 2010, 07:44
steve_ancell	I've also heard that some printers have HDD's. There is another solution if you're that worried. Just shut down the computer first and then unplug the printer, then reboot, job done!. If the printer isn't plugged in at start-up, then windows will not find it, simple