Safely Remove not working solution

I've had a recent problem since 24H2 in that I can not safely remove hard drives
I've tried Clean Boot and various other options looking for why the drive relocks and nothing has worked but I did discover a workaround
Click Eject (on the drive) → Immediately open the Safely Remove Hardware window. and the drive will eject
When you open the Safely Remove Hardware window do not click eject again just open the window
This simply bypasses the timing conflict that Microsoft accidentally created in the latest update

The issue is commonly one of three things.

• Any kind of AV/EPP scanning or locking up files in the device
• Some other process has an open file handle will prevent it from being unmounted
• You've copied a lot of data to the drive, Windows default copy behavior is called Lazy writing which means even after the copy dialog box goes away it may not of actually finished writing data.

neemobeer said:

The issue is commonly one of three things.

• Any kind of AV/EPP scanning or locking up files in the device
• Some other process has an open file handle will prevent it from being unmounted
• You've copied a lot of data to the drive, Windows default copy behavior is called Lazy writing which means even after the copy dialog box goes away it may not of actually finished writing data.

Click to expand...

I have done various tests on the drives and have no locks confirmed by Process Explorer. I have even gone as far as to do a repair install of Windows 11 24H2. Since I last reported this issue I have found an easier workaround. I removed safely remove from the system tray and it is now in hidden icons. What I do now is eject the drive and immediately click on the taskbar and the drives (I use multiple drives and have to swap regular) and the drive ejects every time first attempt if I don't click on the taskbar after selecting eject the drive returns as busy. I thank you for your interest as I have not found a solution even with everything Gemini has offered and that was pretty extensive.

If you go into Disk Management, right click your drive, go to properties.

You should see removal policy. Make sure it's set to 'quick remove' and no write caching settings are enabled

neemobeer said:

If you go into Disk Management, right click your drive, go to properties.

You should see removal policy. Make sure it's set to 'quick remove' and no write caching settings are enabled

Click to expand...

That is correct and yes my drives are set to the correct removal policies. The conclusion we reached at the end of intensive investigation is it sems to be a timing error and clicking on the taskbar breaks the lock. This is the outcome of a huge amounts of tests: Zero-Tolerance Timing: In older Windows versions, the "Safely Remove Hardware" command had a grace period. In Windows 11 (especially version 24H2), this window is now zero-tolerance. When you click "Eject," the service holding the lock quickly releases the handle to flush the drive cache, but the aggressive re-scanning function instantly grabs a new handle before the system can finalize the "safe to remove" message. The result is the persistent "Device is currently in use" error. Again thanks for your interest my hope is a future windows update may fix my issue

neemobeer said:

If you go into Disk Management, right click your drive, go to properties.

You should see removal policy. Make sure it's set to 'quick remove' and no write caching settings are enabled

Click to expand...

If it were something like antivirus with a lock on it (as Defender does), it would have shown up in process explorer handle search for X:, where X: is the drive letter. Very handy tool. That whole defender locking external drives thing is a bug IMO, but this sounds like a new bug.

PerpetualCycle said:

If it were something like antivirus with a lock on it (as Defender does), it would have shown up in process explorer handle search for X:, where X: is the drive letter. Very handy tool. That whole defender locking external drives thing is a bug IMO, but this sounds like a new bug.

Click to expand...

That's a good point and we looked into anything locking the drives using process explorer and no locks could be found. It's more odd that clicking on the taskbar immediately after clicking on eject makes it eject. I've tried many other things to long to list and nothing has solved the issue lets hope Microsoft is aware I have reported it. Like I say I have a work around now but it is of interest.

@MDR_UK,

I have used USB Safely Remove for years, and I have my USB drives configured for "Better Performance." It has never failed me. If a drive is obstinate about removal, the program tells you what is blocking it. I have perpetual licenses for both of my computers, and recently I purchased a copy for a friend, who had no end of trouble with USB drive ejections. He has had no problems since.

I have no affiliation with the company, other than as a very satisfied customer. There is a 30-day free trial.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

As per garioch7, i've used USB Safely Removed for many years without issue.

OldNavy said:

As per garioch7, i've used USB Safely Removed for many years without issue.

Click to expand...

Ive used it for a couple of months now without issue - wonderful little app.