Questions tagged [safely-remove-hardware]
63 questions
76
votes
12 answers
How to safely remove a device blocked by the System process with a handle on \$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Txf
I have an external HDD which I would like to "safely remove". Unfortunately, my system (Windows 7 x64) complains that "the device is currently in use".
Using Process Explorer I discovered which process is holding a handle on the device:
Obviously,…
Heinzi
- 4,258
46
votes
11 answers
External HDD is always in use when trying to safely remove
I have a WD 1TB Elements external hard drive, and every time I use the Windows 7 "safely remove" feature, it gives me a dialog telling that a process is using the disk.
Using Sysinternals Process Explorer and the answer on this Can Windows tell me…
MarioDS
- 1,622
37
votes
3 answers
Is time a substitute for Safely Remove Hardware?
In Windows 7, before unplugging an external hard disk or flash drive, you are ideally supposed to use the Safely Remove Hardware option to make sure there aren't any writes still pending.
Suppose it has been several minutes since the last write…
rwallace
- 2,679
37
votes
5 answers
How do I get Windows to re-attach a USB device without having to plug it in again?
After I use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' notification area widget, how do I get Windows to re-attach a USB device (i.e. a USB drive) without having to unplug and plug it in again?
Kev
- 2,339
18
votes
3 answers
Why is Safely Remove Hardware so slow?
I have never used a computer where pressing the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media"-button has resulted in an immediate response. Most other functions responds almost immediate, whereas it almost always takes a few seconds for the "Eject USB…
Stewie Griffin
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15
votes
5 answers
How can I remove the option to eject internal SATA drives from the Windows 8 tray icon?
The Safely Remove Hardware icon in Windows 8 (and 8.1) offers the ability to eject my internal SATA drives, including the boot drive (see example):
I don't see myself ever needing this - especially not from the convenience of the tray icon.
For…
Anton
- 153
14
votes
2 answers
Does Windows flush drive caches on standby?
Does Windows flush the drive caches when entering standby mode?
It seems like an obvious thing to do and I for one would design it like that if I were on the Windows team, but over the years, I have learned not to make such assumptions.
I only…
Synetech
- 69,547
12
votes
5 answers
How can I safely remove my USB hard drive in Fedora 17?
In Fedora 17, when I want to plug my USB hard disk out, I can only unmount it. But the problem is that the hard drive won't be powered off so that I can plug it out.
In some other distros like Ubuntu there is a Safely Remove option which powers the…
Mehrdad
- 283
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9
votes
5 answers
"Safely Remove Hardware" icon in Windows 8
In Windows 8 the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon sits permanently in the System Tray even though no external drive is plugged into the computer. If you click on that icon the only clickable option is "Open Devices and Printers." Hiding this (or any…
groucho43
- 149
7
votes
4 answers
Safe to manually spin down hard drive with hdparm?
I have a laptop with a ssd for primary OS drive, and a large Spinning disk for storage. I currently have an alias I use for manually spinning down the drive when I'm not using it (after umount of course):
sudo hdparm -y…
Shane
- 203
7
votes
1 answer
Is There A Need To Safely Remove Device If "Quick Removal" Is Enabled?
i have been always ejecting devices from USB prior to removing them from computer and then i thought that if i have "Quick Removal" set, would i still need to eject? What could be the worst case if with this option i will remove device in the middle…
Boris_yo
- 5,994
7
votes
6 answers
Can't safely eject external hard drive on Windows 10. How to Solve it?
Whenever I am trying to eject my external hard drive I am getting "Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device" alert and it is not allowing me to eject the device safely.
(System : Windows 10 21H1 Build 19043.1081)
So, I open the Event Viewer, look…
Mir Rahed Uddin
- 241
6
votes
2 answers
Turn off drive after "Safely Remove"?
Possible Duplicate:
USB hard drive doesn't graceful power off after eject on Windows 7
When you click "Safely Remove Hardware" to disconnect an external hard drive, Windows XP flushes the drive's cache and turns it off.
On the other hand, Windows…
user541686
- 23,629
6
votes
1 answer
Windows 7: Safely Remove Hardware keyboard shortcut not working
A popular keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware dialog is to use the destination as:
Rundll32.exe Shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll
The dialog that is displayed when this shortcut is invoked worked fine in Windows XP. In…
Ashwin Nanjappa
- 10,347
5
votes
4 answers
Safely Ejecting a Drive - I almost never find any program using the device. Why doesn't Windows say which programs are using the device?
I've read "just pull it out anyway", and I've read "you'll be sorry".
Shouldn't Windows be able to tell me which programs are using the device, and ask me if I want to close those programs?
