Cannot Safely Remove USB HDD

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unni

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I have a Seagate Freeagent 500 GB external HDD. Since last one week, I am not able to safely remove it from Vista. Vista says that a program is still using the device. I checked using Sysinternals Procmon. I am not able to see any program accessing the drive.

I had done a fresh installation of Vista this Sunday. When I tried ejecting the HDD immediately after that, it was working fine. Today, its giving the problem again. I think it has to do something with the OS. I checked the disk using Windows disk checker as well as Seagates utility. They didn't detect any problems.
 
I tried unlocker. It says no open handles found. I tried the 'Delete' option, but nothing happened.

I went to Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. From there, I removed this HDDs drive letter. If any file was open, it would have asked whether I want to proceed. Instead it removed the drive's letter. Even after this, I was not able to safely remove it.
 
I think its a problem with windows os itself. The same happens to me too. Sometimes I can remove it and sometimes I cannot remove it safely.
 
It happens in my system as well(i am using Vista Ultimate x64)

Currently i know only one way to clear this problem that is going to task manager > Explorer.exe and ending the process and again restarting explorer.exe through Task Manager

This problem of not being able to safely eject the usb drives mainly happen in vista (in my home pc xp pro i never had this problem)
 
madmaniac said:
I think its a problem with windows os itself. The same happens to me too. Sometimes I can remove it and sometimes I cannot remove it safely.
Click to expand...

mebaali said:
It happens in my system as well(i am using Vista Ultimate x64)

Currently i know only one way to clear this problem that is going to task manager > Explorer.exe and ending the process and again restarting explorer.exe through Task Manager

This problem of not being able to safely eject the usb drives mainly happen in vista (in my home pc xp pro i never had this problem)
Click to expand...

Techie#1 said:
Happens to me too..but only on certain drives!
Click to expand...

I agree completely. It happens to me on Vista 32 bit, that too only for Seagate external HDD. I have a few pen drives and a WD external HDD. None of them have any problem. The same drive gets removed properly from Ubuntu.

I never tried the kill Explorer method. Will try and see what happens.

sunil_geminian said:
maybe a virus or something is accessing ur hd
Click to expand...

Initially, I too thought it might some problem like that or a problem with the HDD. This Sunday, I formatted Vista drive and reinstalled it. Immediately after reinstalling, when I checked, safely remove was working for this. But sometime later, it started saying cannot remove because its in use. I checked with Sysinternals' utility as well as NirSoft's utility (forgot name). None of them listed any open files in the drive. Previously, I scanned my system (including this HDD) completely with AVG, Avira, ClamWin, Spybot, Ad-Aware, Super AntiSpyware & Windows Defender. None of them reported anything. So, I guess there are no virus in my system.

Thanks guys for your replies.
 
Try these:

It may be a issue with a Vista program running in the background - wmpnetwk.exe

This is the Windows Media Network Sharing Service.

Open task manager, show processes for all users, and down the bottom, shut down wmpnetwk.exe

Then use “safely remove†quickly, as wmpnetwk.exe will self startup after a few seconds.
Click to expand...
Else
If you have Norton Anti virus, Norton Utilities, Norton Internet Security etc that uses the Norton Protected Recycle Bin, it may be locking your drive open or a file on the drive open. See if you can remove the Norton Protected Recycle Bin feature from the Recycle Bin.
Another trick that works sometimes is to set policies for the USB drive. Right click the drive and choose properties, go to hardware and then select your generic storage device and go to the properties again. Find the policies tab and check if the device is optimized for performance or quick removal. If its optimized for quick removal you will get the message you are referring to. Supposedly you don't have to use the safely remove hardware process when this is checked.
You should also make sure that there are no programs accessing the drive when you are trying to remove it. This will make the drive think its in use. So if you have Word document open from the drive for example, close the document and also close Word as well. I have heard that Outlook can cause this as well even though it shouldn't be using the drive.
Here is another process I found online that you can try which involves editing the Recycle Bin properties
1. Right click on Recycle Bin, go to Properties.
2. Check box for Configure drive independently option.
3. Click the tab with your USB drive. (Your drive may or may not be listed here)
4. Check the box with option that says Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.

Keep in mind that files deleted from the your USB HDD drive will no longer move to your Recycle Bin, but will be deleted permanently.

Hope it Helps !
 
While removing the drive make sure u dont have any folders open.

Sometimes it happens when you have folder opened.

While removing the drive make sure all the folders are closed.

Also if you have a backup than try formatting the drive..

Njoy

:D
 
mebaali said:
It happens in my system as well(i am using Vista Ultimate x64)

Currently i know only one way to clear this problem that is going to task manager > Explorer.exe and ending the process and again restarting explorer.exe through Task Manager

This problem of not being able to safely eject the usb drives mainly happen in vista (in my home pc xp pro i never had this problem)
Click to expand...

I agree with him the best method for removing if windows does not allows you to safely remove external device:ohyeah: :ohyeah: :ohyeah:
 
Thanks guys for your replies. Unfortunately, none of the methods worked. I tried 2 other laptops running Vista 32 bit. In both of them, I was able to safely remove the disk. Only in mine, I face the problem. Will try a complete format of the drive some time later. Currently, I have about 400 GB data in it, and no place to copy it.
 
Hi fellows, I bought a new WD 320GB external USB HDD & this problem of not being able to eject properly is occuring .
I've attached it only 2-3 times till now & no data has been transfered, still it doesn't eject. Finally bugged with it, I went to properties & uninstalled it & could eject it then.

Also, please guide on how to use external HDD? Im new to this.
I attached it to my Vista machine & it installed drivers automatically but after that a screen with plenty of options appears.
Some ask to sync or backup the device, when I cancel, it leaves me with the options screen.
Please guide a step wise manner on how to properly install A WD 320GB 2.5" Ext HDD on a Vista machine?
 
Thanks guys for all your replies. My problem was finally solved when I did a quick format of the external HDD. Now its working perfectly fine. I didn't do it till now because I had close to 450 GB of data in it.

teche said:
Also, please guide on how to use external HDD? Im new to this.
I attached it to my Vista machine & it installed drivers automatically but after that a screen with plenty of options appears.
Some ask to sync or backup the device, when I cancel, it leaves me with the options screen.
Please guide a step wise manner on how to properly install A WD 320GB 2.5" Ext HDD on a Vista machine?
Click to expand...

In case the syncing software is still bugging you, let us know.
 
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