Safely removing USB External Hard Disk Drive

[Melissa]

Please help -

I am experiencing trouble with trying to eject my external disk drive currently.

The situation is that I go to the task bar and go to eject it properly.

All my programs are currently closed - bar Internet Explorer - as I am typing this message.

I am just wondering how you can assess what is using the external hard drive - whether it may be a back up or virus scan.

I have just been turning my computer on then off as I do not wish to loose any information.

I have been told never to just pull the USB cord out

 

[indianacarnie]

No , you shouldn't just pull the power. (Though I have before )

Since its a Seagate external, could that be its built in back up service working? The next time this occurs , right click on the taskbar and open Task Manager. See what applications and processes,if any, are open and running.

 

[jumanji]

Hi Melissa,

I shall just refer you to this thread How do I safely remove USB hardware drives, when it says it's still in use?! - CNET Computer help Forums which deals elaborately on this problem. Please read through all the threads referred to in the first post by the ADMIN therein.

There are also a few programs that can kill any running processes and release your external drive.

Personally I use Unlocker. UNLOCKER 1.9.1 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB

Other free alternatives : 3 Free USB Safely Remove Alternatives - Technology Flow

 

[AddRAM]

Click Start / Computer / Right click on the drive and choose eject. It should then tell you the drive is in use and ask you to eject anyway, just choose yes and you SHOULD get the safe to remove message.

 

[Melissa]

Still getting the message in my computer and I am really confused would it be the as below - been doing research:



Can't eject USB Hard drive, drive always in use? - Microsoft Community

"Distributed Link Tracking Client" has gone nuts and is groveling the entire hard drive for who knows what reason. In my case, the drive hadn't even been used in this session of Windows. After stopping the service, I was able to eject the hard drive. For this sort of problem, you can get more information about which service svchost.exe is hosting is behind the activity by looking at the stack for a relevant item in the Sysinternals Process Monitor list. I found trkwks.dll in the stack, which is "Distributed Link Tracking Client", which maintains the "tracking.log" you mentioned. As you discovered, the Windows Event Log is no help at all, which unfortunately is very typical.

Or the WMPNetworkservice that I have altered?

I am not gain enough to download anything. One says it may contain bugs.

I will just for the meantime - shut down the computer and unplug.

It may be a back up - but that I can not see running or I do not know what to look for.

Thanks for the wealth of information.

I have tried going to the computer function and eject - but it is noted as a desktop external and will not allow an eject function.

I am getting over computers. This time I never touched anything.

Thank you.

I gather that I am to join Cnet's forum?

They seem to have the same issues.

 

[Melissa]

I also have done full print screens - just to show you what I am seeing.

I also tried going to Devices and Printers - tried ejecting from that - no luck.

Maybe a backup - maybe my media being shared - not too sure.

I also joined CNet - just to see what they can do - but most of the threads are similar to what is on here and I think I get better information on here. Friendly service.



Infusion next week - then surgery.

 

[indianacarnie]

Good luck with the Infusion and surgery. Keep us posted!

 

[gigagiggles]

My two cents worth: I had the same problem several days ago. I used taskman/resource monitor/disk drives to see the external drive was being accessed by the OS, reading and writing. When the drive was no longer in the list, I tried again to eject, to no avail and the drive re-populated the list again moments later. I felt I had to shut down the PC to "safely" remove the drive.

A few days later and without urgency, I found the drive was indexed (I normally don't index). When I un-indexed the drive, I no longer had the problem in "safely" ejecting the drive.

 

[AddRAM]

If you had the room, I would just copy over the data, verify it, shut the pc down, then power down the external. Disconnect the usb cable, restart the pc, connect the external, power it up and see what happens.

 

[Melissa]

Great idea.

I was told to try a clean boot - would not have a clue what to in that case.

I am still stuck doing shut down - unplug and restart.

I have put in all the processes that are running as well.

How do you stop the indexing - as there is quite a lot of data on the external USB 1TB Hard Drive?

Thank you all for your assistance.

Will perhaps look into some of the free downloads - I also have seen that people have trailed Process Explorer - but that looks quite in depth for me.

Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

 

[Thorsen]

should be able to stop indexing by right clicking on the drive and going to properties. in there you should see something like "index for faster search results" or something similar. uncheck that box. Indexing is for the searchbar (or any search area) so you can type something in and quickly find the data because it has already been indexed. otherwise, the OS would have to scan all of the files each time you perform a search (which would take a pretty long time)

Clarification. By deselecting the external drive from the index, the OS will still index all other files and programs on your HDD, but will not do this for the external drive.

 

[Melissa]

Do you mind if I request screen shots - I am not confident at all on this type of thing.

I do not know what the function of indexing is anyway. I used it mainly to search documents - will that still function?

I am very confused - and also tired of shutting down my computer and reopening it just for the purpose of killing off the External Hard Drive - which shows as a external desktop device.

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[Thorsen]

I don't have win7 in front of me to do screenshots. maybe someone else will see this and post. turning off indexing in the drive will not affect the indexing of your other files. you will still have the search functionality.

 

[indianacarnie]

This may help with your indexing : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/17854-index-locations-add-remove.html

 

[AutomaticCoding]

Download Process Explorer and hit CTRL+F:-

Then type the drive letter, like this:-

Boom, done.

 

[Melissa]

With process explorer can you see all the programs that are operating and kill the program?

Can I post back here and gain assistance?

I want to ensure that I am doing it correctly. I am not too sure if I should do what a person suggested that I do a clean boot.

It may be a big process to see what is accessing my external hard drive and eliminate what the issue is. First time this has happened.

 

[indianacarnie]

Process explorer is a fine little application but I truly think a little much for you Melissa. (please don't get angry at me for saying that) For what you are wanting I'm sure plain old task manager will do just fine. Just put your cursor arrow on the task bar and right click. Choose Start Task Manager. A window will open with 6 tabs on it. The open/first one will be Applications. That will show you all the programs/applications thats running. Of course you can always post back here if you need anything, thats why we're here ! A clean boot is relatively simple and can do no harm if thats what you're worried about by the way though I can find nobody suggesting you do that here. If you're truly worried about this (and I have NEVER lost any data myself because of it) Then I would highly recommend you download one of the programs jumanji suggested earlier. For your peace of mind if for nothing else. Heres a snip of task manager. Theres really not a lot more to it than that.

 

[carwiz]

Click on the Orb and type RESMON in the search box. Select resmon.exe. Click on the Disk tab and expand the Processes using disk by clicking on the expand button on the right. This will show you what processes are using disk down to the file level. Scan the file list for any files in use on your external drive. It could be the indexer or defrag. In any case, I wouldn't just turn it off.

 

[gigagiggles]

As Thorsen cautioned in response #12, ONLY do this with a clear conscience. Depending on how one organizes data on an external hard drive, finding data more quickly may be more important than turning off PC to remove external hard drive.

As Melissa has already done, right-click on the external hard drive and left-click "properties". The attached screenshot is what one should get. Near the bottom with the last tick-box is what will indicate whether the external drive is indexed or not. If it is ticked, it is indexed. In my screenshot, it's unticked and therefore not indexed.

Depending on the amount of data already indexed, it may take an hour or MORE to "un-index" the drive and prevent this drive from being indexed in the future. Set aside time for it.

For argument's sake, if indexing is not the issue and ejecting safely is still a problem after un-indexing the external hard drive for you, Melissa, you can return to "properties", tick the box and return to normal indexing of this external hard drive.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum my two cents worth Melissa how about getting a USB powered 500GB external and transfer the data from that large drive (I now realise it is one of those power adaptor ones) and use it.

I know this is more expense but they will be cheaper than the 1TB and to be honest the one I had died after a month and I have never gone back to the larger extrenal drives just a collection of smaller ones so the loss is not so great.