Unable to safely remove external hdd.

[reneftw]

First of all, hello!
Second, I am unable to remove my external HDD (Samsung S2). I installed Usb safely remove, but without any success. It won't work with forced stop either. I think I found out what application blocks the removal, but I do not understand much. I attach the printscreens, hopefully someone will explain me what can I do.

 

[Zardoc]

Just logoff and unplug it then login again. If there is a running process or the drive has a window open, it won't release. Try not to use third party to remove. Best to use the remove button by the clock.

 

[reneftw]

Any ideas how can I remove it without logging off? It's kinda annoying to log off every single time.

 

[Zardoc]

My WD external will sometimes defrag for a while so I just close everything and work on something else, then I try afetr 10-20 minutes and I can remove safely.

As long as there is a process running, it won't let you remove. If that remove option is a third party app that installed with the drive, I would uninstall it and use the windows default usb removal.

The WDD MyBook has a software pack that I never installed and it works just fine without it.

 

[reneftw]

The app it's not installed with the drive, it's "USB Safely Remove" application. I find it very useful since I can select a key combination for safely removal for every type of external storage device.
The disk isn't defragmenting, in the last days I tried at various times to remove it, but no luck.

I reinstalled my Windows a few days ago. I had the problem on the old windows too and I had to stop "Trkwks" process from Services. But now, it won't work that way.

 

[marsmimar]

I'd suggest doing what Zardoc said. Log off, power down, remove device for this one time. Once you've got the device safely removed, I'd then make sure you have the latest release of USB Safely Remove. Version 4.5 was released just a few days ago. Next, I'd temporarily move whatever data is on the external HDD to another location (perhaps the internal HHD.) Then format the external HDD to give yourself a clean platform to work on. Reinstall your data and see if the problem is fixed. If you still can't safely remove the Samsung S2, it might be because the drive is going bad.

 

[reneftw]

I'd suggest doing what Zardoc said. Log off, power down, remove device for this one time. Once you've got the device safely removed, I'd then make sure you have the latest release of USB Safely Remove. Version 4.5 was released just a few days ago. Next, I'd temporarily move whatever data is on the external HDD to another location (perhaps the internal HHD.) Then format the external HDD to give yourself a clean platform to work on. Reinstall your data and see if the problem is fixed. If you still can't safely remove the Samsung S2, it might be because the drive is going bad.

I cannot Power Down the hard drive, since it doesn't have a Power switch. Also, the drive is brand new, I got it for approximately 1 week. I will try to move the data and format it though.

 

[marsmimar]

I cannot Power Down the hard drive, since it doesn't have a Power switch. Also, the drive is brand new, I got it for approximately 1 week. I will try to move the data and format it though.

Just for clarification, I meant to say you could log off and then power down (shut down) the main computer. The shut down process should protect all running processes, open files, etc. Once the main computer is off you can unplug the external HDD. When you power up the main computer you could try plugging the external HDD into a different USB port. Sometimes ports go bad, sometimes even brand new equipment fails after just a few hours or days of use. An old saying: "A failure in a device will never appear until it has passed final inspection."

Murphy Laws Site - Computers Laws

BTW - welcome to the Forum reneftw!

 

[ariel5345]

I had the same problem with a Seagate usb 2.0 500gb. I went to device manager and uninstalled the device driver by right clicking on the external drive. Then I rebooted, and when windows came back on it installed a new driver for the device and the problem was solved.