Can't eject portable hard drive

[Shit Good Nose]

I have a new work-issue laptop which is an Acer low-mid-end gaming machine (so more than ample for what I need it for), but I have a massive niggle with it - if a portable USB is connected to it for any longer than about 5 minutes I get the "disk is in use" message every time I try to disconnect.

I've tried clearing history and running CCleaner, unlocking software, software which tells you what program is using it (there never is one using it), a couple of specific portable drive ejecting apps (none of them worked), checking for driver updates and reinstalling them.  The only thing that works is turning off the laptop, which I don't really want to do as half the time I've got other processes running that I can't really interrupt.  I've run several diagnostics and they never pick up a problem.

This problem is happening with every single portable hard drive I have, including SSD, and it's doing my fucking nut in.

Any ideas or other solutions that don't need a programming degree?

Note - I have full admin rights to the whole laptop - my work stuff is accessed through a secure online client/server/cloud/whatever, so is totally separate.

EDIT - I don't know if it makes a difference, is the cause, or if there's anything I can do about it, but - when I open up the Disk Management window it still won't eject it, but it sees them as primary (i.e. internal I guess?) drives and not separate USB ones.

[Blumf]

Possibly something (anti-virus? Windows indexer?) is scanning the drive.

Try:
https://superuser.com/questions/117902/find-out-which-process-is-locking-a-file-or-folder-in-windows/643312#643312

And search for the drive letter (e.g. 'E:')

[evilcommiedictator]

Work laptop - it's either scanning or encrypting it, what is the wotk policy with USB drives?

[Shit Good Nose]

Possibly something (anti-virus? Windows indexer?) is scanning the drive.

Try:
https://superuser.com/questions/117902/find-out-which-process-is-locking-a-file-or-folder-in-windows/643312#643312

And search for the drive letter (e.g. 'E:')

That appears to be exactly the same as the Disk Manager tool (?).  Apart from where it thinks it's an internal drive as I mentioned above, there's nothing doing anything with whatever's plugged in.

Work laptop - it's either scanning or encrypting it, what is the wotk policy with USB drives?

We can do whatever we like with them (within reason - nothing illegal and no porn) and there are no hardware restrictions - as most of us are being basically forced to work from home permanently (because they're renting out two thirds of our offices to third parties to make up some huge budget shortfalls) they've effectively given us a free laptop which we can use as a personal one as well as for work.  ALL work stuff is through a secure online thing which doesn't pick up or transfer anything to or from the laptop itself, or something, and operates in a separate window (for example if I need to print something for work, I can't send it to the printer direct from my online work client - I have to e-mail it from my work e-mail to my personal e-mail and then drop out of my online work window and log into my personal e-mail and print it from there...if that makes sense). 

I haven't ruled out that it could be a fault, so I might get in touch with IT and throw it at them, but thought I'd check with the brains here first because the turnaround on that will likely be a few days minimum, even more likely a week or more.

[evilcommiedictator]

If it's a fault another USB port would behave differently, also, you don't need yo officially eject it, just give it a yank a good 5s afyer finishing copying and see if the files are good

[Blumf]

That appears to be exactly the same as the Disk Manager tool (?).  Apart from where it thinks it's an internal drive as I mentioned above, there's nothing doing anything with whatever's plugged in.

No, the linked item showed you how to locate any processes that might be using the drive, which would give the "disk is in use" message. Disk Manager just lists the drives and their partitions, not what's using them.

[Shit Good Nose]

If it's a fault another USB port would behave differently, also, you don't need yo officially eject it, just give it a yank a good 5s afyer finishing copying and see if the files are good

I thought you weren't supposed to disconnect external drives (particularly those with moving parts) without properly ejecting them?  I never used to eject them, but I'm sure I killed two drives by just unplugging...

No, the linked item showed you how to locate any processes that might be using the drive, which would give the "disk is in use" message. Disk Manager just lists the drives and their partitions, not what's using them.

Gotcha - I've spotted it now.  Unfortunately there still don't appear to be any processes using it (I plugged in a 1tb portable HDD just to check).

[Sebastian Cobb]

I thought you weren't supposed to disconnect external drives (particularly those with moving parts) without properly ejecting them?  I never used to eject them, but I'm sure I killed two drives by just unplugging...


Gotcha - I've spotted it now.  Unfortunately there still don't appear to be any processes using it (I plugged in a 1tb portable HDD just to check).

Not a moving part issue. Years and years ago hard drives had to be manually told to park, which put their heads back in the rest positon, a bit like a tonearm on a record player, but far worse because the heads float on a cushion of air created by the spinning disk so they'd crash into the platters and fuck them up. Automatic park has been around long before removable drives were on the scene, and computers/drives are now clever enough to park the drives just through movement to stop them crashing if they get shook about.

The problem you can have is data corruption if data is being written or if it appears to be written but is actually in a buffer somewhere waiting for more data, eject forces these buffers to be flushed to 'finish off' the write, but I think operating systems past XP reduced the need for this by frequently flushing the buffers anyway. However, if you can't eject the drive that might suggest some buffer is not being flushed, which would make me reluctant to unplug it.

tl;dr you won't break a drive by unplugging it but you could corrupt some files, maybe.

One last thing... You're not using encryption or something are you?

[Shit Good Nose]

Not a moving part issue. Years and years ago hard drives had to be manually told to park, which put their heads back in the rest positon, a bit like a tonearm on a record player, but far worse because the heads float on a cushion of air created by the spinning disk so they'd crash into the platters and fuck them up. Automatic park has been around long before removable drives were on the scene, and computers/drives are now clever enough to park the drives just through movement to stop them crashing if they get shook about.

The problem you can have is data corruption if data is being written or if it appears to be written but is actually in a buffer somewhere waiting for more data, eject forces these buffers to be flushed to 'finish off' the write, but I think operating systems past XP reduced the need for this by frequently flushing the buffers anyway. However, if you can't eject the drive that might suggest some buffer is not being flushed, which would make me reluctant to unplug it.

tl;dr you won't break a drive by unplugging it but you could corrupt some files, maybe.

One last thing... You're not using encryption or something are you?

Thanks, I actually understood that.  Which is rare.

Encryption - no, absolutely no encryption.  I wouldn't even know how to do that.

[Blumf]

Gotcha - I've spotted it now.  Unfortunately there still don't appear to be any processes using it (I plugged in a 1tb portable HDD just to check).

I can take a while to list anything (fuck knows why)

[Shit Good Nose]

I can take a while to list anything (fuck knows why)

It's been plugged in for nearly an hour and still nowt doing, in fact the drive itself has gone to sleep but it still won't eject.  I've just unplugged the cable for now.

[Hand Solo]

Don't eject it from fucking windows, eject it from the fucking window.

[BlodwynPig]

just physically pull it out like I d

[Replies From View]

We can do whatever we like with them (within reason - nothing illegal and no porn)

Seems a bit unreasonable.

[Shit Good Nose]

Seems a bit unreasonable.

Don't worry, I'm downloading films and music on it.

[touchingcloth]

Lsof it mate.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I had this issue. An external drive that thought it was an internal that you just couldn't eject.

Instead I had to go down to the taskbar and eject the "USB to ATAPI bridge" that was acting as a middleman. Once that was ejected, the drive would simply park and disappear from Explorer. Do you have any options like that?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Lsof it mate.

unix jokes? get a grep mate.

[Shit Good Nose]

I had this issue. An external drive that thought it was an internal that you just couldn't eject.

Instead I had to go down to the taskbar and eject the "USB to ATAPI bridge" that was acting as a middleman. Once that was ejected, the drive would simply park and disappear from Explorer. Do you have any options like that?

How do I check/where exactly do I look?

[Hand Solo]

unix jokes?

Think he made that one up himself.

[Huxleys Babkins]

How do I check/where exactly do I look?

Sorry for the late reply. Had to dig out the drive in question. It's in the eject menu on the taskbar;



The drive itself is greyed out, but the USB to ATA interface itself is ejectable.

[Shit Good Nose]

Sorry for the late reply. Had to dig out the drive in question. It's in the eject menu on the taskbar;



The drive itself is greyed out, but the USB to ATA interface itself is ejectable.

No worries.

Gotcha.  That's how I've always ejected drives.  Still coming up with the message saying it's in use.

[Hand Solo]

Gotcha.  That's how I've always ejected drives.  Still coming up with the message saying it's in use.

Press Windows+R or go to Run and type 'diskmgmt.msc'

From in there you may be able to eject it.

[Shit Good Nose]

Press Windows+R or go to Run and type 'diskmgmt.msc'

From in there you may be able to eject it.

That just brings up the Disk Management window, which I've tried before.  That's where it shows the portable drives being internal and part of the laptop.  I've tried moving them and renaming them, but no joy.  Still can't eject either.

[Hand Solo]

That just brings up the Disk Management window, which I've tried before.  That's where it shows the portable drives being internal and part of the laptop.  I've tried moving them and renaming them, but no joy.  Still can't eject either.

Then the only other thing I can suggest is looking in the BIOS for some settings which may be affecting it. There's all that BIOS/UEFI stuff affecting different drive sizes/formats too.

[Shit Good Nose]

Then the only other thing I can suggest is looking in the BIOS for some settings which may be affecting it. There's all that BIOS/UEFI stuff affecting different drive sizes/formats too.

I'm too much of a techno-idiot for that.

Sounds like I'd better get in touch with our IT guys.

[Hand Solo]

I'm too much of a techno-idiot for that.

Sounds like I'd better get in touch with our IT guys.

The person in this long involved thread had the same issue and seemingly tried lots of methods listed, but it doesn't seem anything worked, maybe one might work for you though?

The only other and simpler option that I don't think they suggested would be to reformat it in the Disk Management window, as exFat or something and hopefully Windows will recognise it as external, also make sure the drive properties are ticked for 'Quick Removal'.

[Shit Good Nose]

The person in this long involved thread had the same issue and seemingly tried lots of methods listed, but it doesn't seem anything worked, maybe one might work for you though?

The only other and simpler option that I don't think they suggested would be to reformat it in the Disk Management window, as exFat or something and hopefully Windows will recognise it as external, also make sure the drive properties are ticked for 'Quick Removal'.

Ta.

All my external hard drives and memory sticks/cards are formatted as exFat anyway, although I've never checked for the Quick Removal option - will look at that when I next have one plugged in (which will probs be tomorrow).

[Hand Solo]

All my external hard drives and memory sticks/cards are formatted as exFat anyway, although I've never checked for the Quick Removal option - will look at that when I next have one plugged in (which will probs be tomorrow).

Maybe another format then if nothing else works? Is it not actually a drive that's meant to be internal and you're just plugging it in externally via a USB/SCSI adapter? I do similar with a few backup drives and they show as Internal but have the option to 'Convert to Dynamic Disk' so I can plug it in and out quickly if I wanted to, they're formatted as NTFS but they show up with 'Quick Removal' already checked.

I have a 250 GB Samsung USB pen drive in now which is FAT32 and it shows up as Removable and also has 'Quick Removal' automatically checked:

[Shit Good Nose]

Is it not actually a drive that's meant to be internal and you're just plugging it in externally via a USB/SCSI adapter?

No, these are all legit portable HDDs and one SSD (Seagate, Western Digital and Buffalo) and USB sticks (Sandisk and Samsung).  Doesn't appear to be a problem with cards, but those just go in the card slot rather than USB port.