I have a lot of USB peripherals hung on my cpmputer. At the moment there are 17 of them (there are three plugged directly into the computer rather than through the hubs). As a result, I get to deal with the "Safely Remove Hardware" business a lot.

If I have good reason to believe that the computer is not actually writing to the device, how critical is it to "Safely Remove..." rather than just unplug it? Am I risking damage to a flash drive or to my Kindle if I callously pull the cable out of it without going through the dance?

tanstaafl.