Windows 10: Cannot Safely Remove External Drives

I have 3 external ESATA drives with the same problem. The difference is that each ESATA drive has a different manufactures HDD. Hitachi, Samsung & Toshiba, I figured I would follow the same instructions, but the only thing that I could think to do since none were WD drives was to go into the device manager and open up each one in the "Disk Drives" drop down menu, go into each ones properties, and uninstall the drivers and reboot the PC with them still powered up, that did NOT work? Now what???

 

I had that problem, but I tried troubleshoot from (devices & printers) & it's working now *Confused

 

That did not solve my problem either,,,,,, this sux!

 

Anybody else have a solution? Im not even sure (as much of a pain it is) that shutting down the PC, then shutting off the external drives or Thumb drives is effecting my data on those drives?

 

Had this problem and believe me when I say I am no computer pro either. Looked everywhere for a solution but didn't come across any so I just searched my computer and accidentally fixed it. Please note there is probably a quicker way then below however this is how I found it and I am a complete laywoman! Noticed with Windows 10 you don't need to remove it safely which we are all so used to doing. Apparently it is built in and as long as nothing is being copied you can remove it safely just by unplugging. However, for peace of mind I managed to change those settings.
Windows - Settings - Devices - Connected Devices scroll to bottom and click on Device Manager
Press down arrow for Disk Drive and right click your external HD for properties



You will notice under the Policies tab "Quick Removal" is set as the default so just change to "Better Performance". Restart computer and it should all work.

Hope this helps everyone as it did for me.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I will have to check out those settings. I have 2 PC's with Win 10, one of them tells me its safe to remove, the other wont, and often tells me its in use? Even when I don't have any of the files open or windows explorer?

 

Great let me know how you go...I had the exact same problem as you.

 

I actually see in policies that "Better Performance" is the default, not "Quick Removal" as you stated? It is currently set to best performance now.


Also, this is all well and good if resolved through the device manager, but say you plug in a thumb drive, does that mean you would need to go into the device manager and change the policy for that as well? that does not seem logical,,,,

 

So,,, now what am I supposed to make of that????? Very confusing, and still does not address the thumbdrive aspect?

 

I'd the same problem while using Windows 10,

1) Go to notification bar ( Which is by default in your task bar and looks like "^"(without quoted) ),

2) You'll see SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE ICON,

3) Click on that ICON,

4) And you're done.

Worked for me onHP 15-ac042TU.

 

thats what I always do, but when I click on the safely remove icon, I do not get any indication it is now safe to remove the device, which is typical.

 

Don't want to give my hardware specifications for privacy reasons, but I've found a solution for some users. I was having the same issue i.e. not being able to disconnect USB media, particularly storage devices. Here is what worked for me:

• Open the Disk Management utility by right-clicking the windows icon (other other various methods)
• Navigate to your external USB storage device
• Right-click the disk and there should be an option to take the drive "offline."
• Now you can eject your storage device from the little application in your "hidden icons" menu on the taskbar.
• Bam - Presto - Alakazam! You can safely remove your device.

Best guess at what's going on here is, as suggested in earlier posts on this thread, there's some kind of web-app like a cloud service or some other nonsense Microsoft's created that's keeping the read/write channels open for the device. Anyway, will work for at least some Windows 10 users.

Wish you all much success -- cheers.

 

For me, it was Windows Defender. I turned off "Real time protection", and I was able to safely remove USB device without the in-use message.

 

Mine is off as well, but that did not resolve it for me,,,