Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device said:

This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again

This to me is the most annoying feature in Windows. Why can't Windows tell me what programs or windows are using the device so I know what to close? Many times, I have tried closing all programs and windows that might be using the device. I even closed programs and windows that I was fairly certain were not using the device just in case they were. In resource monitor, the Disk 1 (E:) Queue Length shows no activity and nothing is listed as using the drive in the Disk tab.

I can go into an Elevated Command Prompt and run Diskpart, select the volume associated with the USB Mass Storage Device, and run a remove dismount of the volume, and it still claims the drive is currently in use... How can it be in use if it no longer has a handle and has been dismounted?

I have reason to believe this is either the security software preventing removal of the device, or Windows itself. After some time, I am able to remove the device. This happened to me most recently on a computer with Norton 360 installed, which is supposed to stop all scanning when the system is no longer idle. Windows also was not indexing the drive for faster searches.

Any ideas what causes this behavior? Any suggestions on how to remove the drive if it happens in the future?

There are some third party Shareware Programs that identify the handles. USB Safely Remove is one such that I was using with XP but have discontinued in Windows 7. There is a provision for forced removal too but I have never used it.

Not being able to remove a pen drive is very annoying but I wait, sometimes till I have shut down the computer.

Cheers.

When I run into the problem...even though I know I've shut down the program....I use task manager to see in fact if there is some or part of the program in question still running. Then I just kill that process.

wanchoo said:

There are some third party Shareware Programs that identify the handles. USB Safely Remove is one such that I was using with XP but have discontinued in Windows 7. There is a provision for forced removal too but I have never used it.

Not being able to remove a pen drive is very annoying but I wait, sometimes till I have shut down the computer.

Cheers.

Waiting to shut down works well with a desktop. I actually do the same thing. With a laptop, having it unable to eject limits the portability of the system that it is designed for... I would be hesitant to use a third party tool in the event it corrupted data on the external drive. I've actually had the safely remove feature cause corruption on external drives, but I think that was prior to me being smarter about managing Windows performance and before I stopped using third party optimization tools.

bassfisher6522 said:

When I run into the problem...even though I know I've shut down the program....I use task manager to see in fact if there is some or part of the program in question still running. Then I just kill that process.

Yeah, when you said that, I realized in the past I had managed to eject a drive after ending the explorer.exe process. I will try resetting explorer.exe next time. Thanks for reminding me. :)