Comments for

Comment from Adam on 2009-12-14

2009-12-15T01:13:00Z

Just wanted to say thanks for the information contained in the article and comments.Was trying to isolate a hard drive but still have easy access.
Unlocker among others,has provided that link,and removed possible mistakes.
Thanks

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Comment from Colin Mac on 2009-12-07

2009-12-07T09:41:13Z

Many people try to close a USB drive with a double RIGHT click which displays a box and ask you to select the device you wish to close, this doesn't always work!!! A LEFT click will display the message 'Safely Remove Hardware'.... one click on this does the trick!

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Comment from Theo on 2009-12-07

2009-12-07T08:52:37Z

I can only backup the statement to never remove a USB devicejust like that. I wrecked a stick once doing that.

All my collegues always told me that it is unnecessary to shut down the device, "you can just pull it out, it doesn't hurt". So it did that once. The very next time I plugged the stick into a computer, it seemed fine, but after a some 10 seconds it disappeared from the drive list. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it back.

The only way to see the stick again, was unplug it, wait a little (as if a capacitor had to discharge or so...) and then replug it. Again: it would be visible for a couple of seconds, and then disappear. The longer I waited before replugging it, the longer it would stay visible (hence my suspicion of a capacitor discharging), but never longer than 10 seconds or so. I managed to pull off all important data by copying it onto my hard drive during that few seconds (took me a couple of sessions), but by all practical means the stick has become unusable.

So I disconnect my sticks properly again, no matter what my collegues think of it...

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Comment from nick on 2009-12-06

2009-12-07T00:25:29Z

I have been researching this for SIX months. I have NOt found an ideal solution for this.

1. we need a way to FORCE a dismount of the usb drive. These drives stay locked up just from activity of indexer, explorer, etc, things that may not be WRITING data, but just are LOOKING at the drive.

2. I will try UNLOCKER

3. process explorer is good, BUT there are processes that show up that I have NO CLUE what they are, and am hesitant to shut down those programs without knowing what they do

4. See Truecrypt (disk encryption program). If you start truecrypt, and MOUNT an encrypted drive, and then later try to UNMOUNT it, and something is inadvertently accessing that encrypted drive, truecypt has an option to FORCE dismount. THIS is what is needed for the usb drives.

Leo, KEEP UP the research on this topic, because it affects LOTs of people, and not being ableo to shut these down is a pain

nick

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Comment from Logan E. Wing, III on 2009-12-03

2009-12-03T22:13:49Z

Go to My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista). Right click the drive letter of the drive you want to remove. Left click Eject. Wait for the safe to remove message, then remove. Has worked so far for me.

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Comment from SystemCrash on 2009-12-02

2009-12-02T21:09:32Z

Another quick thing I do is to "Unmount" the drive by removing/changing the assigned letter for that drive using the Disk Management Console (diskmgmt.msc). This forces the handles to be removed from the logical drive.

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Comment from josh on 2009-12-02

2009-12-02T13:52:55Z

unlocker always works for me. if it doesn't, you haven't given it enough time to close every process referencing data on the drive. Ending 'explorer.exe' process is just unnecessary.

in hardware properties also (right click device, properties).. some clicks later.. there should be an option to allow for safe removal anytime but you get no cache/indexing or something like that. good trade-off though.

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Comment from RikkU on 2009-12-01

2009-12-02T07:51:41Z

At times it could also be a case of the original application still locking the device. eg: if you were using a wordprocessor to edit a document directly on the USB drive, even after closing the document (but not the application itself) you may not be allowed to stop the device. If in doubt, close all open applications.

Another situation is where your device is being scanned by your anti-virus program. You can either stop the scan or wait until it finishes.

Hope this helps.
RikkU

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Comment from Pilu on 2009-12-01

2009-12-02T07:01:33Z

There is another way, posted on:
http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/archive/2007/01/15/unlocker-utility-for-ejecting-usb-drives.aspx

and the little program can be downloade from:

http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html

Hope it will some help
with respect
Berta Istvan (Stephen)

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Comment from Kikzamchine on 2009-12-01

2009-12-02T06:55:17Z

This works for me. . .
Open task manager.
Go to the Processes tab.
End Process "explorer.exe".
All windows will definitely close including the task bar.
Select file on task manager.
Select "New task (Run)"
Type, explorer.exe then hit enter or ok.
Task bar will be back. Eject the device again (Safely remove hardware).

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Comment from 1101doc on 2009-12-01

2009-12-02T02:20:44Z

Another vote for Unlocker. Right click the drive in "My Computer," choose Unlocker, and when it opens, select "Unlock all." 99.5% success for me.

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Comment from Philipm on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T22:41:44Z

I unplug mine by putting my machine in stand by mode. Doing this turns off the MY Book activity light which tells me its off. Much faster than restarting everything.

Standby makes me nervous. I would *hope* that the system flushes disk buffers and the like, but it's also possible that that's not the case. To running applications Standby (and hibernate to some degree) don't appear as if the computer has shut down at all. It's possible that even in standby removing the device could leave unfinished files and unflushed buffer. I have no idea how likely this is, but it makes me nervous.

02-Dec-2009

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Comment from Stan Carton on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T21:55:21Z

Hello Leo: Thanks for the advise on removing drives. I use a lot of naked drives and have tons of data to keep backed up. I hate it when I get the message about "remove later". I have completely shut down the computer and removed the drive/s. This works great. I have never lost anything. If the data is important and you want to remove the drive shutting down becomes a great alternative for me. Thanks again. Stan

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Comment from Oren Phipps on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T21:37:49Z

Instead of turning the computer completely off I have found it sufficient to simply Log Off a much quicker process. remove the drive and then log back on.

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Comment from ian reece on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T18:28:03Z

Above: "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." Once this is done, the drive is no longer being monitored and one can "Safely remove Hardware". Unfortunately, as far as I know, if System Restore is enabled, there is no way to permanently (ie surviving reboots and unplugging/replugging drives) cancel system monitoring for any non-C drive. So, every time one plugs in a drive, one has to go thru the procedure above in quotes.

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Comment from Alan W on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T17:57:35Z

See also perhaps http://safelyremove.com/index.html

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Comment from Frank Walker on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T16:54:55Z

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.

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Comment from Peter Baker on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T16:54:51Z

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.

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Comment from Rajitha on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T16:24:27Z

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.

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Comment from Gabe on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T16:22:41Z

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

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Comment from David on 2009-12-01

2009-12-01T16:21:04Z

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.

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Comment from Ziggie on 2009-11-30

2009-11-30T18:54:24Z

Unlocker works for this situation:

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

(I do not work for them nor am I associated, just enjoy their product).

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Comment from Ken B on 2009-11-30

2009-11-30T17:41:53Z

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

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Comment from Munkeh Junk on 2009-11-30

2009-11-30T15:22:54Z

No, this is not considered the safe procedure.. you should always turn off your your PC before hand.

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Comment from G L DeLozier on 2009-11-29

2009-11-29T23:30:58Z

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?

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