Why you should "safely remove hardware"

Just thought I would share what happened. Running Win98SE on this comp. I had disconnected the external hard drive (at the externel hard drive connection: usb cable still plugged into the comp) after shut down. I accidentally kicked the cable, which disconnected from the comp, and the comp went blank, black, the on\off switch didn't work. (Panic) I called the computer shop down the street, he said such action might have blown out the mother board. I took it there 2 minutes after they were supposed to close. (okay, I begged). It booted okay. He said it was the power supply. Apparently, unplugging it, and plugging it in again worked. But don't try this at home. :) And don't disconnect a usb connection while the comp is on unless you have "safely removed hardware." With Win98, there is no icon in the systray, (unlike my XP) so the "safely' would seem to be disconnecting the usb cable at the comp after shutdown. If anyone has anything to add to this, I'm sure it would be appreciated.
Chas

no i don't know the specific technical reasons but I’m quite sure that this does not apply to newer computers. now maybe someone can enlighten me on the specific technological change, if any, there has been but i do know that for me and the vast majority of people i know this is not a problem. i am forever pulling out ipod's, flash memory etc and never a problem. but there is obviously potential problems for certain computer's so thanks for the heads up.

If you pull out any disk (or other medium) while a computer is actively writing to it, you risk losing either: 1) the file it was writing to or, if it was writing to the FAT table (the file index), 2) access to ALL of the files on the disk.

If you 'kick' an external USB connector sideways hard enough, you risk shorting out the wires inside the socket ... which could subsequently feed the wrong voltages back through who-knows-what circuit(s) throughout the computer.

With 98SE, I go to My Computer, right-click on the device (usually a flash drive) and click Eject. I don't know if this does anything, but I've never lost any data either. I'm cautious--even it says hot-swapable, I eject/safely remove first. If the write-behind is active, you have to stop it before removal.

Thanks all for your replies. I didn't expect any; I just wanted to let folks know. Igbpop, I was given that advice before. (I don't have the reference but I'm sure you can find it. I asked about ejecting my external drive. It was suggested that I right click and click "eject"). The interesting variable would seem to be that I partitioned the external drive, and evem if I'm in one of the drives or in "my computer" there is no eject option on right click. But Win 98 still rocks.
Chas