Can't Safely Remove Device

Question

I have a hard drive with a USB connectiong that I plug into a USB port on my screen. I used to be able to use the "OK to safely remove device" option after I did a backup. Lately I've been getting the following message.

What might have changed that won't let me disconnect it safely without shutting down. Does XP think it is still being used?

"The device "generic volume" cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later."

Thanks.

RoHe · Answer

It could mean that there's still some data in the cache that hasn't been written to the HD yet. If that's the problem, you could turn write-caching off on this external HD. Drive performance will slow down a tad, but you'll probably not notice the difference.

Plug the HD in and open Device Manager. Find the listing for the drive and go to its Properties page. Click Policies tab and click the button "Optimize for Quick Removal". Click OK back to desktop and reboot. From then on, you should be able to unplug the HD without using the "safely remove" icon, as long as it's not busy writing something to the disk.

Ron

mombodog · Answer

I get this frequently, sometimes i try several times, choosing different device components sometimes works (display device components box ticked) or I give up and unplug or power down anyway, you will get a ftdisk error in event viewer. I have had no ill effects doing this for years.

xp101 · Answer

Thanks for the info. It doesn't sound like anyone knows why it worked OK for 2 years, and now all of a sudden it doesn't. But, I guess that's why they call them computers!!

RoHe · Answer

Probably impossible to know. Have you checked to see if write caching is turned on? And if you previously had write caching turned off... And/or with all the updates Microsoft force-feeds us, or other software you installed, who knows what might have changed that affects this external drive.

Ron

Windows General

Can't Safely Remove Device

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