1

I have a 1TB external hard drive. Whenever I try to safely remove it, it says that the device is still in use.

I looked through all my processes and I can't find anything using the device. It's annoying since I always have to unplug the device, which I know is not good.

I recently installed a clean version of Windows 7 and the problem still occurs. What could be the cause?

Hennes
  • 65,804
  • 7
  • 115
  • 169
de1337ed
  • 177

5 Answers5

3

Have you tried changing the drive's specific policies tab to Quick Removal?

enter image description here

It would look something like that. Otherwise, are you certain Windows is not indexing the drive.

And when you say "clean version of Windows 7" do you mean the ONLY things you have installed other than the OS are the hardware drivers? Or do you mean that you wiped and reinstalled Windows 7 and the drivers, and all the software you normally use?

Bon Gart
  • 13,100
1

In this case, you have 2 ways..

  1. Use third party software.
  2. Do it manual.

1.Third party softwares.

  • IObit Unlocker
  • unlocker

2.Manual methods

  1. Press “Ctrl”+ “Alt”+ “Del” together, then the Task Manager window will appear. Click Process tab, and search for “rundll32.exe” under the Image Name. Select the “rundll32”process, and click End Process. Then you can remove your USB device safely. If there are more than one “rundll32”process, you need to end all of them.

  2. Try to empty your clipboard. when we copy a files from USB drive, the file will be put in the clipboard of the system and always keep a stand-by state. If we want to remove the USB drive at this moment, then the prompt will exit. so Try to empty your clipboard

source - http://www.gogorapid.com/how-to-fix-problem-ejecting-usb-mass-storage-device/

Shyamal Rumal
  • 11
1

Try downloading unlocker from here and right click on drive and click on unlocker.Now choose kill all processes and then try to safely remove it

manu_dilip_shah
  • 276
0

I've seen this before, it was caused by a task monitoring a directory for changes.

Loren Pechtel
  • 2,694
0

Usually it won't matter if you unplug your USB device when it's not performing data operations. However, if you really want to use the safely remove your device feature but it doesn't work, A tricky solution is available. You only need to end your explorer.exe process at windows task manager. Then at the time when explorer.exe is reloaded, you perform the safely remove.

Freelanzer
  • 69