Windows 10: External USB connected HDD will not Eject due to being in use

Having recently found this to be an issue I looked for an answer. All the answers I found involved assuming that there was an underlying issue with Windows or drivers.


I had noticed that at times the device could be ejected and therefore was unlikely to be related to the configuration.


I have found that if the drive is available at Boot time it is treated as being part of the system and therefore, despite there being an option to eject it in the Taskbar, it will not. When the drive is powered on after boot it can be ejected.


I did try to find a way of declaring the drive as a removable device but it appears there is no such setting in Windows. The suggested methods of changing the Policy settings for the drive made no difference.


According to the article below it is the BIOS that determines this. The article is related to the opposite situation when an internal drive shows up as removeable media:


https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/3083627/internal-sata-drives-show-up-as-removeable-media

According to Device Manager, my external drive is located on USB Mass Storage Device. I would assume that this would qualify as removable media.


Using ProcessExplorer and searching for "X:" shows 3 processes:


explorer.exe 7992 File X:

explorer.exe 7992 File X:

WWAHost.exe 10120 Mutant \Sessions\1\AppContainerNamedObjects\...


The explorer processes both show that SearchIndexer.exe has SearchFilterHost.exe and SearchProtocolHost.exe connected.


As far as I understand this is related to the Indexing feature. This feature is unchecked in this drives properties.


While ensuring the drive is off at boot time is okay I would like to know if there is any way of fixing the issue.

:)

 

Can't Eject External HDD After Upgrade

my windows 10 Home version is 1803, Build 17134.285 after upgrade. however, now i can't eject safely external HDD. i thought it was one of my HDD but then i tried all my HDDs, and they won't eject safely with a message "drive is currently in use ..... ".

no problem with my usb sticks.

thanks.

 

Eject options inconsistent between USB stick and USB external drive - Windows 10

Hi,



Before we proceed, I need more information to help you better.

• 
  Have you tried connecting different external drive?
  
• 
  Do you face the same issue with different external drive?
  

As a work around , I suggest you to connect different external drive to your system and check whether will you get the option to Eject from File explorer or not.

And also try connecting same external drive to different system and check if the issue persist.



Reply with necessary information so that can assist you better.

 

Is my External HDD files currupted?

I connected my external HDD to USB port , and soon after the little
auto play window appears and auto was acting like it was scanning something, as usually auto play does normally ; than
immediately I unplugged my my external HDD
unconsciously without proper ejecting which we called safely remove drive . My external HDD contains lots of music, videos and obviously images. Now my question is, Is my any of my files in
External HDD get corrupted due to not removing it properly?