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#1
HDD will not disconnect, causes issues shutting down
Hi, I have a Western Digital external HDD (1 TB) that I use to store all my media (connects via ESATA and USB 2.0, but I have never used the USB connection, and unfortunately I have no idea where it is). I recently tried reconnecting the HDD to my laptop, but for some reason it reconnected with a different drive letter than usual. So I tried changing the drive letter, but I received an error (some ambiguous error saying the action couldn't be completed, likely because something was accessing the drive). So I disconnected the drive, but now, any time I reconnect it, my computer doesn't fully register the drive (it appears in My Computer without the available space information, and any attempt to access it doesn't work). On top of that, certain programs hang up and don't run (such as the Virtual Disk Manager and Hardware Manager for removing it safely). I am also unable to shutdown the computer while it is "connected", it hangs up at the Shutting Down screen, and nothing happens (I waited 8 hours over night, it shouldn't take that long), so I have to force a shutdown.
The real kicker is that if I simply unplug the device, nothing happens. All the problems persist as if the drive is still there (it even shows up in device manager), including being unable to shutdown. If it isn't connected, my computer operates perfectly fine.
I am completely baffled here. I'm normally perfectly capable of solving any computer problems on my own (this is my first time posting for computer help), but I have never seen anything like this before, and have found nothing online.
Any ideas? I really appreciate any help/advice. Let me know if there is any other relevant info I should post.