problem ejecting USB mass storage drive

[VitasLoWang]

This is really mysterious. I have an external 2.5" USB drive and for
god's sake I cannot safely remove it from my Vista ultimate 64bit
system! :) I copied something on it and I am quite sure, that safely
remove is good to do, because I use such drives for some time already
and I already lost some files when it was not done (my computer froze
something)! Process explorer shows nothing when I search for my drive
letter. I tried some unlocker utility, but it does not make it's context
menu...maybe after restart it will :-\ I disabled indexing for fast
search on this drive, but nothing changed...Maybe system restore?...


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VitasLoWang

[Bob F.]

You might try this to see if anything else has grabbed a hold of it.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...sExplorer.mspx

[Uwe Sieber]

System restore it no more a problem under Vista.

The ProcessExplorer often cannot resolve drive letters, you have
to search for the drive's 'DOS device name'. My drive removal tool
shows it:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/removedrive.zip

But even the ProcessExplorer doen't seen all handles. For
instance the handle to container file mounted by TrueCrypt
isn't seen.


Uwe

[VitasLoWang]

C:\programy\utils\removedrive>RemoveDrive.exe g:

RemoveDrive V1.8 - prepares drives for safe removal
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - 'Uwe Sieber's Homepage'
(http://www.uwe-sieber.de)
Removing Drive 'G:\' (FUJITSU MHT2080AH USB Device)..........
check for open handles on volume 'G:\' or '\Device\HarddiskVolume5'
failed



So what does this mean?


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VitasLoWang

[Uwe Sieber]

Same as "The device xxx cannot be stopped right now." when
using Safely Remove Hardware facility.

Search for "Volume5" in the ProcessExplorer.

[VitasLoWang]

I tried it again - procesxp found the explorer.exe holding it, because I
forgot one window, but when I closed it and tried removing drive the
normal way via tray icon it seemed like it is working but after a little
longer time then before it again said that it cannot be done. After I
tried the removedrive utility I was not able to find anything again with
process explorer... Anyway I think that the data has been flushed to
drive even that windows says it could not be removed...

check this: 'UKAZTO.COM'
(http://www.ukazto.com/?img=2861353~removedrive.jpg)

[VitasLoWang]

hey I maybe had to run procexp as administrator! I will try and tell...


--
VitasLoWang

[occam]

VistaLoWang, take a breath. I don't think I got all that.

I have the same problem with you - but I am running on Vista Business
32bit. (It is a Toshiba 160GB external USB mini-hard drive device).

When I try 'Safely remove device' I get the message 'device still in use
- cannot eject'

Sometimes - but only sometimes - I get the 'OK to remove the device' if
I just close the Explorer.exe completely.

[Adam Albright]

This isn't a "problem" rather a lame Microsoft feature. You'll always
get a "can't remove" error if Explorer is open IN THE DRIVE you're
trying to unmount or if any application is using that drive.

[VitasLoWang]

Another day I could not safely remove my USB hard drive, so I ran
Process Explorer as admin and look what held it!
'_http://www.ukazto.com/?img=2937464~removedrive1.jpg_'
(http://www.ukazto.com/?img=2937464~removedrive1.jpg)WTH can I do with
this? :o It did not seem like it is going to release my disk ever...

Surprisingly next day I was able to safely remove my drive...


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VitasLoWang