Vista, the osx wanna be....? - Page 4

Tommo · #25 March 19th, 2007, 05:52 AM

Symphonix, just left click and select safely remove and it ejects it with no extra prompts. Not much different to the Mac really just a smaller icon.

**fryke** · #26 March 19th, 2007, 06:21 AM

Left click what, tommo? The "devices" taskbar item? Does that remove _all_ USB hardware, then? Either way: The user interface is "disconnected" here. On the Mac, the device pops up on the Desktop. And it's _there_ that you choose to remove it, not some generic list somewhere entirely different. Those are the little things that matter in interface design.

Tommo · #27 March 19th, 2007, 06:36 AM

The little icon in the system tray that Symphonix refered to. You can also eject it from within the Explorer window, by right click>eject. It is just a case of getting used to the interface.

I have as many problems with users going from PC to Mac as the other way round. Maybe as I am lucky enough to alternate between operating systems all the time I find both easy to use.

**fryke** · #28 March 19th, 2007, 06:43 AM

I've found the explorer's "eject" function _not_ to work with most USB memory sticks, that's why I didn't even mention it.

Tommo · #29 March 19th, 2007, 06:53 AM

I have not had a problem with the brand we use, but have come across it with others. Ironically the only problem I have with mine is that it has two partitions and on initial plugging into the Mac it only mounts the first one. If I eject it and reinsert it both partitions mount.

On either platform I don't think the are the most reliable technology. Maybe I should just stick to CDs :-)

knight885 · #30 March 19th, 2007, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommo

Symphonix, just left click and select safely remove and it ejects it with no extra prompts. Not much different to the Mac really just a smaller icon.

Not strictly true. Whenever I do this, the drive is almost always still being accessed by Windows, so I get a message to click up in the middle of the screen reporting that fact. So I go all the way up there to click OK just to start again.

Anyone with half a brain who actually USED the O/S for any length of time would put a Retry button on the message. But then that would be intuitive...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommo

The little icon in the system tray that Symphonix refered to. You can also eject it from within the Explorer window, by right click>eject. It is just a case of getting used to the interface.

USB sticks might have that, USB hard disks definitely don't. In fact the fiddly thing in the taskbar is the only way to eject hard disks without using Device Manager.

contoursvt · #31 May 16th, 2007, 03:34 PM

Its not brain surgery. The little icon shows shows removable storage (USB or Firewire). You click on it and it shows you your one device or multiple devices that are there. You can then put the mouse over the device you want disconnected and click on it.

If the drive was very recently accessed, it may still be writing cached content to it. Might have to wait a few seconds. If its a USB 1.1 device, this part might take a bit longer. If you have a document open from that device, then obviously it will also report that its in use and try later.

...We have numerous XP and a few Vista machines and people here have USB keys and many that have an add on USB 2.0 HD on their desk. No issues with disconnection so I dont know what all the fuss is about.

**fryke** · #32 May 16th, 2007, 06:36 PM

Not a big fuss. Only that it's kind of exactly *not* what a clean and straight-forward user interface that long-time Mac users have had the priviledge (one that can be bought, not one by birth or anything) of enjoying all these years since 1984 would expect.