Why do I get "device ... cannot be stopped right now" trying to safely remove my USB drive?

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The drive may also be optimized for quick removal as opposed to performance in the device manager. If you check it in the list of drives you can change the option with a restart required.

I am having this problem right now. I wish there was a way to know which disk is which (\Device\HarddiskN etc.). However, the drive properties in Device Manager say that it's optimized for quick removal and "this setting disables write caching on the disk and in Windows, so you can disconnect this device without using the Safe Removal icon." I am just going to do that, by lack of an alternative. It is empty right now anyway, I just formatted it and wiped it with PGP Shredder to eliminate malware that often comes with new flash disks.

Question: doesn't the error occur simply because of the "quick removal" setting, meaning Windows has no cache to flush and can't "remove" something that is already not permanently attached?

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