Eject Drive Does Not Work on Boot Drive in Precision xx20 and xx60 Workstations

Table of Contents:

1. Cannot use the Eject Drive option on a boot drive?
2. What is the Dell FlexBay feature?
3. Why you cannot remove a boot drive that is in use

Cannot use the Eject Drive option on a boot drive?

The hard drive bays on the front of Precision xx20 and xx60 Tower workstations are configured as Dell FlexBay's.

The Eject Drive or Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media messaging is shown against the drives installed in these front bays. (This is when you are using the Windows 11 or Windows 10 Pro 64bit operating system.)

This includes any boot drive installed in these front bays. If you try to use this feature to remove the boot drive, the desktop fails to complete the task and displays an error.

What is the Dell FlexBay feature?

(Figure.1: Precision Front Drive Bays)

The Dell FlexBay features are Hot-Swappable drive bays that come in several configurations at the point of purchase. (They only work with drives of that configuration.)

Using customer conversion kits you can switch the configuration of the FlexBay for different drive types. (See the following link for more information:)

• Upgrading Storage in the Dell Precision 5820 | 7820 | 7920 Tower Workstations

What does Hot-Swap mean?

Hot-Swap in this case means:

• Storage drive bays that are accessible
• Where any Data and Storage drives can be removed or added while the desktop is up and running
• Swapped while running the operating system and the operating system continues to function

This removal or replacement can be to add additional storage space, add data, replace faulty drives or move data to another location or device.

Why you cannot remove a boot drive that is in use

Installing a bootable operating system on a hot-swappable drive, turns it into a boot drive. However the desktop hardware still sees it as a hot-swappable drive.

However, where you are using a boot drive in a hot-swap bay and boot to the operating system you cannot remove the drive. Trying to remove the drive while that operating system is still running does not work. The drive you are trying to remove is in use - constantly.

You can swap the boot drive with another boot drive once the desktop is tuned off. Both bootable drives must be set up for that particular device and its drivers.

When the operating system does not allow you to eject a bootable drive that is in use, it is working as expected.