cannot eject

Bikeit · Dec 18, 2022

Im trying to eject an external drive from my laptop but keep getting the pop up message below, anyone offer any help please?

Bree · Dec 18, 2022

Bikeit said:
Im trying to eject an external drive from my laptop but keep getting the pop up message below, anyone offer any help please?
View attachment 47861

I get that occasionally. For an external drive Disk Write Caching is normally disabled by default, so it may be safe to remove it any way. But to be really sure it's safe you want to be able to eject it.

First close any apps you have running, even if you don't think they would be using the drive. Sometimes it takes a while for all processes that may be using it to close, so try again after waiting for a bit. If you still can't eject, try signing out then back in, this closes all process you may have had running in the background.

Once in a while even that doesn't help. To be really sure it's safe to remove your only option is to shut down the PC.

GCG1000 · Dec 18, 2022

Well, I have the same problem my WD My Book external HDD. The easiest way I've found to "eject" this drive is to put PC to "sleep" and turn off the drive after the drive heads "park". This saves me from the aggravation of fiddling with the Device and/or Managers in Windows. You can also try: "OpenCloseDrive" app at: OpenCloseDriveEject 3.11 Safely remove drives and open close DVD, USB (Be advised, that it doesn't always work as advertised.) Good Luck.

GCG

WXC · Dec 18, 2022

Bikeit said:
Im trying to eject an external drive from my laptop but keep getting the pop up message below, anyone offer any help please?
View attachment 47861

This might be of help...

Can’t Eject External Hard Drive Drive or USB on Windows 11/10/YouTube

Best of luck.

DigitalGoat · Dec 18, 2022

Another method I have found works is to install or use the portable HWInfo64, when run it flushes all buffers, so any pending disk activity should be forced to complete allowing the disk to be ejected.

Sir_George · Dec 18, 2022

Bikeit said:
Im trying to eject an external drive from my laptop but keep getting the pop up message below, anyone offer any help please?
View attachment 47861

Visit the link below for useful information regarding the message you are receiving. I was having the same problem and solved it with the solution provided in the link.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/do-you-want-stop-using-safely-remove-hardware-notification-icon/

If you read the article, it is extremely insightful and easy to understand.

ThrashZone · Dec 18, 2022

Hi,
Often explorer is just fudged up
Other times it's a music playing app attempting to access the device

Quickest way is often restarting the machine or winkey+x and type uu to really shut down.

glasskuter · Dec 18, 2022

System processes sometimes lock onto usb drives and hold them hostage. Signing out is not enough. The only way to get whatever process to release them is a restart . This happened a lot with me and I found an excellent little program called USB Safely Remove that I've used for years in place of Explorer's safely remove. This program does what explorer's does, but has the added option of letting you force the release of the process holding it hostage thereby eliminating the need for a restart. It is a paid app, though. But here's the deal. For $19.90 you can buy it and get its updates for a year. After that time, it will no longer get updates, but it will continue to work forever. I bought mine many years ago for $5.99 and still use it though it hasn't been updated in a long time.

ThrashZone · Dec 18, 2022

Hi,
Yikes 20.us
You can use this to restart explorer for free and don't have to change anything just run as admin and use restart explorer.

WinPaletter: customize Windows theme colors to your liking

I've never tried this program. But I've seen a LOT of posts asking how to change this or that color, etc., of the Windows GUI. This may come in handy. https://www.ghacks.net/2022/06/10/winpaletter-unlocks-more-windows-theme-color-customization-options/ Let me know how it works. If I get...

www.elevenforum.com

Merry · Jan 19, 2023

Sir_George said:
Visit the link below for useful information regarding the message you are receiving. I was having the same problem and solved it with the solution provided in the link.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/do-you-want-stop-using-safely-remove-hardware-notification-icon/

If you read the article, it is extremely insightful and easy to understand.

Thanks a lot for this! I bought a new laptop a couple of weeks ago and I've gone crazy trying to find a solution to the "device is in use" problem. What a relief to find out that in Windows 11 it's as simple as selecting the "Quick removal" policy by default, thanks to your link.

Sir_George · Jan 19, 2023

Merry said:
Thanks a lot for this! I bought a new laptop a couple of weeks ago and I've gone crazy trying to find a solution to the "device is in use" problem. What a relief to find out that in Windows 11 it's as simple as selecting the "Quick removal" policy by default, thanks to your link.

Thanks for the feedback.

glasskuter · Jan 19, 2023

I can see where the quick remove policy would work for most people but it's not a practical solution for me. I have over 20 flash drives used for various purposes so the same drive letter is never assigned each time I use them. I also have 4 external hard drives with up to 5 partitions each, each partition assigned a static drive letter. (Yeah, I know it's overkill) The external hard drives are recognized as local disks so there is no option for quick removal in properties nor any eject option in Windows. Only my third party app recognizes them as usb and lets me remove them safely.