It happened to me ONE time, a couple of years ago, I just ripped a little 8gb usb stick, and it corrupted all my data in it. I would plug it in many computer, including Windows and Linux, and the drive wouldn't read. Windows would see it in My Computer but couldn't open, I don't remember the error message it prompted, but it suggested that the drive be formatted. So I did, lost all my data (which was only media, so not important) and was able to re-use it afterwards. But yea, that only happen ONCE in my lifetime, lol. But still, with a device as expensive as my N900 as well as my 64gb Kingston USB stick, I both just safely remove them both. After all, it takes only about 3 seconds longer.