As most PC harddrives are still mechanical, the safely remove option should always be taken as it ensures the disc reading heads are in the 'parked' position

Otherwise it's like leaving the needle on the record when you move the hi-fi, and that always used to end in tears in our house

Flash drives are slightly different as there are no moving parts, but the advice to always 'safely remove' is good nonetheless


Same goes for the internal drives, so always follow the Windows shutdown procedure when ending a session and resist reaching for the wall socket until it powers off completely