Random Ramblings of a Neo-Post-Modern Geek (I have no idea what that means)
Cannot stop device right now
Whenever I try to use the “Safely remove hardware” option in windows to remove the hard drive installed in the modular bay of my laptop, I get the following message:
As far as I could tell, nothing was actually using the drive. I’m only using it to backup files on at the present time.
I disabled Windows indexing, thinking that a system process had the device in use, but that didn’t make a difference.
So I downloaded Filemon for Windows from http://www.sysinternals.com hoping I would be able to see what file was open on the device.
Well wadda ya know … turns out Norton Utilities “Protected Recycle Bin” had the doggone thing open.
When I turned OFF the Norton extensions on the recycle bin for drive D:, I was able to stop the device and safely eject it.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by david on 21 September 2004 at 9:25 pm, and is filed under Computers, Windows. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
My problem was in the ISO image i mounted from USB mass storage device!!!
Some times i forgot my name, any way thanks….
about 1 year ago
I had this problem with several external drives (External USB Hard Drives & Thumb Drives).
For several years, This is what I did each time it happened to a drive & it didn’t happen again on that drive after each reset.
I suggest making sure the drive is set for optimal use:
To do so:
Open My Computer and right click on the drive
Choose “Properties”.
Go to “Hardware”
Select the removable drive
Click Properties and go to the “Policies” tab
Make sure that the drive is “Optimized for Quick Removal” (<— this is not the one to check mark, it is the other one, if you wish to use the “Safe to Remove” little green arrow)
Click Ok, Ok,
Your computer will want to reboot if you change this setting, Let it.
Then you can remove safely.
Good Luck! n “Don’t Forget Ta Have That Fun”
about 1 year ago
Updated link is here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896642.aspx
about 1 year ago
Thanks very much for this advice – Filemon helped me immediately. An svchost.exe process was constantly accessing the USB drive, but Filemon told me its PID and when I stopped that process from the Task Manager I could then stop the USB drive.
about 1 year ago
I recommend you USB Antivirus. It has an unlock option. You can read a full review at http://www.thereviews4u.com/index.php/Software/Autorun-Virus-Remover.html
This application just dismount the USB pendrive so it can be removed with out issues. There is a free demo so you can give it a try.
Besides has many other tools very usefull.
Thanks, I hope this can help anyone.
about 2 years ago
It is a common issue when some antivirus programs is taking your device to buisy state
about 2 years ago
I downloaded a program that can stop the processes running in your HD (it turned out to be the indexing)
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
about 2 years ago
I don’t think so, Joyce.
about 2 years ago
does a virus has something to do with that message?
about 2 years ago
I disabled System Restore and it worked for me.
Right click on My Computer
Go to Properties
Go to the System Restore tab
Select Turn Off System Restore.
about 2 years ago
Norton recycle bin was the problem in my case. It was the first thing I tried. Recommend trying recycle bin first and then other norton programs.
about 2 years ago
I downloaded USB Safely Remove. It showed me that the Norton Ghost Administrative Service had the drive open (even though there was no backup running) I stopped the service, and the drive could then be stopped. I re-started the service, and Ghost complained – but I’ll have the drive switched back before the next backup (I use the same drive for two systems).
Thanks all!
about 2 years ago
My thanks to all of you for your wonderful solutions. Some of them worked for me. I wanted to pass along how I solved the problem when the USB device would not stop DUE TO a “program still accessing it.” Instead of shutting down explorer.exe in the Task Manager area, just open Windows Explorer (usually at C:\Windows\explorer.exe) and immediately close it without clicking on any files. Then try stopping the USB device. This worked for me for a Western Digital 500 GB hard drive. Hope it helps someone.
about 2 years ago
For my WD Passport(portable harddrive), I right-clicked for Properties->Hardware tab-> there were 2 disk drives:
1. WD 1200BEA External USB Device: I went to the properties -> Policies and made sure the option is on ‘Optimize for quick removal’. This was the suggestion from many people and it didn’t completely help.
2. STxxxxxxxA: I went to the properties->Policies-> apparently, ‘optimize for performance’ was selected and greyed-out. Here, I turned off ‘Enable write caching on the disk’.
This helped me clear the problem. I don’t know why this portable harddrive shows 2 disk drives? I hope this reply helps few people … check individually all the disk drives in your harddrive and make sure the ‘write cashing’ is disabled for each one of them.
about 2 years ago
Update: Somehow Norton has taken back the recycle bin on my back up hard drive. Perhaps it re-establishes control after a full system scan.
about 2 years ago
I have had trouble getting permission to disconnect my MyBook 500 backup hard drive (optimized for quick removal), and it turns out that the Norton protected recycle bin was the culprit for me. Thanks so much for the tip. With my version of Norton, if you right click the wastebasket, and go to properties, you can manage each drive separately, so you can keep the Norton recycle bin on the C drive, but remove it from the backup hard drive. (Each drive has a different tab.)
about 2 years ago
I have a WD 2.5″ backup drive.
I couldn’t remove the drive without shutting down each & every time. I tried every suggestion, Norton wasn’t anywhere on the system, the drive settings, looked at files running with filemon, none worked except the suggestion to install & run “unlocker”. That showed me that MusicMatch was the culprit!
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
about 2 years ago
I was hoping that the problem would be Norton because I have the AV but nothing changed when I disable the autoprotect (sorry if I’m a bit blur in all this, but how do you turn OFF the Norton extensions on the recycle bin for the drive which is used by the external HD anyway? I sure didn’t see any option setting anywhere, so the logical thing was to disable at that time)
So I adjusted the Recycle Bin’s setting to “Configure drive independently”, so that all files deleted from my external HD is deleted permanently (which I thought should be the problem since I’ve done some heavy deleting just before trying to remove the HD), but nothing happened.
Next I tried the checking the HD properties’ policies. Optimized for performance was already checked and greyed out, and when I turned off write caching under “optimized for performance”, it didn’t work either.
It was Lee’s suggestion (No. 35) of closing explorer.exe in the Task Manager and then starting it again that worked. Still, I’m mindful of David’s remark that if some other task is using the device, this will do nothing.
Can anyone give a little bit more on the Norton-solution and on the explorer.exe-solution, because I don’t feel like I’ve got down to the bottom of my problem yet. Do I have a problem because of Norton or something else? I can’t shake the feeling that there’s a connection in all this somehow.
Thanks for tip on using FileMon.
about 2 years ago
Great
I tried that FileMon tool. As soon as I tried to stop my usb drive a bunch of errors popped up in filemon letting me know exactly which process caused the error [tsvncache.exe].
In my case I had to kill tsvncache.exe.. after that the USB drive behaved itself.
To kill the device hit control-alt-delete -> go to the ‘process’ tab -> find the process mentioned by filemon.exe -> click end process. Don’t blame me if you stuff up your system doing this. If you don’t know what the process does then don’t do this.. In fact if you don’t know how to end a process then you probably shouldn’t be !
about 2 years ago
hi all,
i’ve tried everything, after using ‘safelyremove’ i was able to stop the external hdd. but when again plugged, the same result. i was able to stop the external hdd by using dos prompt and run chkdsk [drive]:x. X means it will fix/delete errors.
Hope this help.
Edwin
about 2 years ago
Hello everyone!
Same issue here and it’s been driving me nuts. I downloaded the trial version of “safely remove” software (mentioned above). It told me that a Musicmatch file was preventing the close. I stopped the mim.exe file in windows task manager and was able to remove safely.
Hope this helps someone!
Lora
about 2 years ago
Valnomien – You’re the greatest; you just relieved my splitting headache. Thanks so much.
about 2 years ago
Well that’s to be expected. If a application is using the data on an external drive, the OS should not allow it to be removed.
about 2 years ago
FYI — I encountered the same thing recently with Quickbooks 2008, used in a multiuser environment. Basically QB Database Server Mgr was locking all attached drives and monitoring for QBW files and wouldnt let an external FireWire device “eject” or unplug.
about 2 years ago
i am using Mc Afee…i am having the same problem sice long…i thought going to the device manager and uninstalling the drivers might help…no go…i usually turn off the computer to get rid of the problem…i even reinstalled the OS for this problem…please help
about 2 years ago
Liz on September 18th, 2006
I wanted to report that the answer about “any AV” is probably correct! After weeks and weeks of trying to find an answer, yours was right-on. I have PC-Tools, and when I exited from it, I was able to disconnect my MP-3 player without the message finally. THANKS!!!!!
Thanks Liz… and thanks to GeekyRamblings also for this page.
about 2 years ago
I have tried many of the suggestions here, and while I am running Norton AV, the suggestions did not work. Tried Lee’s suggestion of closing explorer.exe in the Task Manager and then starting it again and it worked great! Thanks for solving a really annoying problem.
about 2 years ago
In my case, I couldnt stop the USB, and dont have Norton running. However, I had just saved a Word document, and realised that Outlook was the culprit. Why? Because Outlook is using Word as my email writier. So having Outlook running means the USB thinks Word is still running. I turn off Outlook, and bingo, the USB stops immediately.
about 2 years ago
PC Tools Antivirus is also a culprit, had to turn it off and then take the my USB key out. What a croc of BS for this to happy har!!!
Anyone else got an alternative for a virus/proctection software that doesn’t lock up the USB key or other devices?
Do tell! Thanks in advance.
about 3 years ago
This worked well for me. I ran FileMon while trying to stop the device, and it told me that crypserv.exe was accessing it. I did a little research and determined that this application is only useful for programs with a trial period. If you don’t want or need to use the programs you have on your PC, go ahead and end this process via Ctrl alt delete. I shut mine down with no ill effects, and my drive was safely removed.