Windows 10: Cannot Safely Remove External Drives

Hello all,
In recent weeks, it has become impossible for me to safely remove my external drives. (Mostly, I use Western Digital Passports, Passport Ultras, etc).

I am using Windows 10.

I close all of my programs and folders. I get the "busy" message and to try again later. I run Unlocker on the drives, and Unlocker shows no activity or actions that I can take. I bring up my task manager and nothing is running. I try to safely eject from the WD utility and it doesn't work. I try to eject by going to my computer, right clicking on the drive, and ejecting from there. Sometimes I simply wait for half an hour, read some articles, try again. I get the same "busy" or can't shut down message.

I read online that I could try to Device Manager, click on the drive, and under policies select "Optimize for Performance." However, the computer must restart for changes to take place, and when i've tried, I get stuck on an infinite "Restarting" screen.

I read somewhere that I can try to empty a hidden recycle bin on my external, but I can't seem to reveal it?

I tried posting in the WD community forum and did not receive helpful tips there.

Nothing I do lets me eject these drives. I have to shut down my entire computer every time I want to remove a drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated.








:)

 

I Am Unable to Safely Remove My USB External Hard Drive

Hi,

More often than not (around 19/20) when I try to safely remove my external USB hard drive, I am unable to do so.

In order to safely remove it I:

1. click on the up arrow in the bottom right of the screen to show hidden icons.

2. click on Eject Expansion Desk.

3. then a popup appears saying there is a problem ejecting the hard drive. (See image attached).





So, how can I safely remove my external USB hard drive? It is plugged into my laptop, and my laptop is no longer portable as I cannot move it as the hard drive is connected, and cannot be safely ejected.

Also, when I go to File Explorer and right click on the hard drive, there is no option to Eject. So, this is not an alternative option to safely remove it.

My laptop is using Windows 10.

Thanks for your help.

 

Portable External Drive Problem

Hi! I have this 1TB portable external drive (Seagate) and my computer dont read it. When I plug it on my Windows 10 laptop, the safely remove icon appears but it doesnt show on my PC. And the the external drive does not blink but when i eject it, I can
safely remove it. What is really the problem, my laptop or the external drive?

 

Still having problems - now, my computer won't even shut down properly - if I have an external drive plugged in (and nothing I do lets me safely remove it), if I shut down, my computer gets stuck indefinitely on a 'shutting down' screen.

 

FWIW, I have to close Task Manager before Windows 8.1 will allow safely eject, so if you've left it running in the notification area to monitor CPU usage, try closing it.

In Windows 7, Distributed Link Tracking Client could also prevent safely eject. See message from zbeagle in this thread for more on that:

Can't eject USB Hard drive, drive always in use?

 

Having this issue too. Clean 32 bit install of latest build and 'safely remove' option always reports the drive is use when it is not.

 

Hope they fix this. Did a clean install for first time., same problem. Show stopper for me. Glad I will be able to upgrade the TP to the final, so I can still dual boot.

 

Some people have had success by disabling the Distribute Link Tracking service.

 

Happens in Windows 7 much more frequently then it does in Windows 8.1 but it still happens occasionally in Windows 8.1 for me.

I haven't tried Windows 10 yet but seeing that the new OS has a new kernel it should be a lot better than Windows 8.1 with regards to removing external storage.

A permanent solution to the problem is to get USB Safely Remove software: Safely Remove Hardware better alternative | USB Safely Remove however the software is not free, that's the downside.

 

Have you checked the indexing options in control panel

If its the same as 8.1 it could be always checking the drive for changes to update the search index

 

Hi there

same problem also in build 10147 -- however if the device is Quiesced (I.e no lights flashing) you CAN remove them.

I've only once experienced anything unusual when I connected one of these drives to my Linux system --got a message "File system wasn't cleanly closed by Windows ---Fixing".

No data loss occurred.

However if you are totally paranoid you'll just have to shut down windows to remove the devices.

I haven't been able to find which Windows process(ses) is/are using the HDD's though -- perhaps once connected they are always being checked for "sync" to some wretched cloud service.

If someone more experienced in Windows internals than me (I don't know much about Windows internals at all BTW) could find out we might be able to solve the issue. !!

Cheers
jimbo

 

Windows 7 works fine. Windows 10 I cannot safely remove at all, ever, with USB 3 drives.

I tried disabling the link tracking client , that did not help.

I have indexing turned off for the drive.



Just because the lights aren't blinking doesn't mean all of the data is flushed. I'd rather not take the chance.

You all really find this acceptable? This is something the OS needs to do and needs to do reliably.

Anyhow, thanks for the help.

 

think this option is still in 10, what is this set to for the drive properties?

 

Better performance. The remove drive safely feature is for when you have the drive set to better performance. If you have it set to Quick Removal, then all of this doesn't matter (but you have low performance).

I should add that this was working properly at some time with Windows 10. It is broken now.

 

Hi there

I don't see that screen or option on my W10 system (10147) or on build 10130

External device is G -- It's a USB3 device -- no options "Policies".

Cheers
jimbo