When XP tells me my device cannot be stopped and to try later, I find that if I immediately right click the "safely remove hardware" icon and ask again, it will say it is safe to remove it. I view it as NOW it knows I want to shut it down and prepares it so I can. Wouldn't this be considered the safe procedure?
Posted by: G L DeLozier at November 29, 2009 3:30 PM
No, this is not considered the safe procedure.. you should always turn off your your PC before hand.
Posted by: Munkeh Junk at November 30, 2009 7:22 AM
Thanks for the honesty about not always following your own advice on what you "should" do. I have to admit that I, too, have unplugged the USB cable (*not* the power cable) on a device that simply wouldn't allow me to "safely" remove it after failing to find what had it open.
But, I agree that it's a last resort action, short of shutting down the computer itself, and know the possible consequences, and would never recommend doing it
Posted by: Ken B at November 30, 2009 9:41 AM
Unlocker works for this situation:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
(I do not work for them nor am I associated, just enjoy their product).
Posted by: Ziggie at November 30, 2009 10:54 AM
Here's what I do: If I have saved nothing to the drive (say, a USB thumb drive) and it was inserted only for reading of files, then I ignore this warning and pull the drive out anyways. (My theory is, I've saved no files to that drive, so I don't care what Windows says.) If on the other hand, I have saved some files to that drive, then I get paranoid and pretty much follow Leo's steps above; the reasoning is that **now** I want to help Windows flush buffers and update everything on that drive, so that all my files newly written to that thumb drive are not corrupted.
Posted by: David at December 1, 2009 8:21 AM
Leo,
Could you elaborate on this...
With a USB drive plugged in, if I go into Device Manager (right-click My Computer and select properties), expand disk drives, right-click the USB device and select properties, on the policies tab, there's an option to "Optimize for quick removal". Would you trust this as an I-never-need-to-safely-remove-my-device-again type of setting?
Never? Never say never. I'd try to use safely remove if at all possible.
02-Dec-2009
Posted by: Gabe at December 1, 2009 8:22 AM
i have installed this too called 'unlocker' which basically unlocks the files from processes. whenever i get this type of a message, the easiest thing to do is to right click on the usb drive and select 'unlock' from the menu.
Posted by: Rajitha at December 1, 2009 8:24 AM
Try right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties, then switch to the System Restore tab. If System Restore is monitoring the external drive, disable it from this dialogue box. Then restart the PC, verify the external drive isn't being monitored and then see if you can now remove it. It worked for me.
Posted by: Peter Baker at December 1, 2009 8:54 AM
What about unchecking "enable write caching on the disk"? In My Computer right click the device, click properties, click the "hardware" tab, click properties, click the "policies" tab, make sure "enable write caching on the disk is unchecked.
This is for windows XP.
Posted by: Frank Walker at December 1, 2009 8:54 AM
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When XP tells me my device cannot be stopped and to try later, I find that if I immediately right click the "safely remove hardware" icon and ask again, it will say it is safe to remove it. I view it as NOW it knows I want to shut it down and prepares it so I can. Wouldn't this be considered the safe procedure?
Posted by: G L DeLozier at November 29, 2009 3:30 PMNo, this is not considered the safe procedure.. you should always turn off your your PC before hand.
Posted by: Munkeh Junk at November 30, 2009 7:22 AMThanks for the honesty about not always following your own advice on what you "should" do. I have to admit that I, too, have unplugged the USB cable (*not* the power cable) on a device that simply wouldn't allow me to "safely" remove it after failing to find what had it open.
But, I agree that it's a last resort action, short of shutting down the computer itself, and know the possible consequences, and would never recommend doing it
Posted by: Ken B at November 30, 2009 9:41 AMUnlocker works for this situation:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
(I do not work for them nor am I associated, just enjoy their product).
Posted by: Ziggie at November 30, 2009 10:54 AMHere's what I do: If I have saved nothing to the drive (say, a USB thumb drive) and it was inserted only for reading of files, then I ignore this warning and pull the drive out anyways. (My theory is, I've saved no files to that drive, so I don't care what Windows says.) If on the other hand, I have saved some files to that drive, then I get paranoid and pretty much follow Leo's steps above; the reasoning is that **now** I want to help Windows flush buffers and update everything on that drive, so that all my files newly written to that thumb drive are not corrupted.
Posted by: David at December 1, 2009 8:21 AMLeo,
Could you elaborate on this...
With a USB drive plugged in, if I go into Device Manager (right-click My Computer and select properties), expand disk drives, right-click the USB device and select properties, on the policies tab, there's an option to "Optimize for quick removal". Would you trust this as an I-never-need-to-safely-remove-my-device-again type of setting?
02-Dec-2009
Posted by: Gabe at December 1, 2009 8:22 AM
i have installed this too called 'unlocker' which basically unlocks the files from processes. whenever i get this type of a message, the easiest thing to do is to right click on the usb drive and select 'unlock' from the menu.
Posted by: Rajitha at December 1, 2009 8:24 AMTry right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties, then switch to the System Restore tab. If System Restore is monitoring the external drive, disable it from this dialogue box. Then restart the PC, verify the external drive isn't being monitored and then see if you can now remove it. It worked for me.
Posted by: Peter Baker at December 1, 2009 8:54 AMWhat about unchecking "enable write caching on the disk"? In My Computer right click the device, click properties, click the "hardware" tab, click properties, click the "policies" tab, make sure "enable write caching on the disk is unchecked.
Posted by: Frank Walker at December 1, 2009 8:54 AMThis is for windows XP.
See also perhaps http://safelyremove.com/index.html
Posted by: Alan W at December 1, 2009 9:57 AMTo post a comment on "Is it safe to just turn off an external USB drive without "safely removing" first?", please return to that article's main page.