Windows 7 - I couldn't "safely remove" my USB external drive

Hello

I have this problem in Windows 7. Always when I try to stop my external USB drive (HP pd 750a) system message appears that drive is in use by another process or application. There were no problem under Windows XP. What process I have to stop if I want to correctly "safely remove" my drive ?

Hello Bataj and welcome to Seven Forums.

See if this tutorial helps.

Safely Remove Hardware - Eject Device

Hi Bataj55

Have a look at this.It will tell you what may be preventing your drive to be safely removed and allow you to end the processes LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes

Danny

I've try three others usb external devices (samsung, WD and My HP) all of them has same problem in my Windows 7 x64 station. I couldn't safely remove them, seems like Windows 7 doesn't recognize them as removable storage device.

I just remove the USB device. The "safely remove" protects you against incomplete writes. But if you wait a couple of minutes after the last write operation, you can be pretty sure that all writes are completed. The other method is to reboot which will free-up all the handles.

If you want to be double certain, disable the write caching for the device (in Device Manager > Policies tab).

Thanks "whs"

I switched caching off in policies as You recommend me and now I can "safely remove" external USB drive. However one question, there were no problem in WXP - means that WXP doesn't use caching during USB external drive operations ?

Thanks.

No idea, I never used XP.

Hello Bataj

You can also try USB Safely Remove. It replaces native Safely Remove Hardware and lets you display locking processes or forcibly stop a drive.

Here are a few other potential solutions --- all depending on what the exact cause of the inability to safely remove is:

In Windows Explorer, double-click on “Computer” in the Navigation Pane (left column) and in the
RIGHT-HAND column, right-click on the device you want to remove. Click on “Safely remove” and it should allow you to do so.

Check Task Manager to see if it shows that any USB files/programs are open. If so, of course check End Process to officially close that file/program.

If Task Manager doesn't see anything open, go into your Start menu's Recent Items list, select the most recent item opened from the USB hard drive, and with that file open, go back into Task Manager. Highlight that file in Task Manager and “End Process.” Then go to Windows Explorer and you should be able to remove your USB drive with the Safely Remove link or Eject. You may have to repeat this process several times, each time selecting the next most recent item in the Recent Items list.