Home / ubuntu / Questions / 234523
In Process
Andre
Asked: 2012-12-31 17:16:37 +0800 CST

When can I safely unplug an external drive on 12.10?

  • 772

I have browsed several answers... but none seems to address my question.

As reported in bug #1067876 the options to "safely remove" an external drive is gone.

No problem! Umount is sufficient for me. However, I cannot recognize WHEN it is safe to pull the USB plug out since the icon for the storage device does not disappear, and no notification is displayed. How can I know if it is safe to unplug the device? How can I explain to my mother when it is safe to do so? So I am looking for an easy solution (as it is present in 12.04).

12.10

1 Answers

  1. Perhaps a BASH script on the Desktop might suffice until the bug is fixed. This solution is from Nikunj Lahoti. The software, udisks, can unmount and power down an external hard drive.

    sudo apt-get install udisks

    Then create a file (safelyremove.sh, perhaps) on the Desktop or a convenient place. Change /dev/sdc to your device. Make sure to include all partitions on the device. 

    #!/usr/bin/env bash

echo "Unmounting..."
udisks --unmount /dev/sdc1
udisks --unmount /dev/sdc2

echo "Spinning down..."
udisks --detach /dev/sdc

read -p "Done! Press [Enter] to exit."

    Make the script executable. It will wait for [Enter] so you can see it is done.

    • 2