Windows 10: In Windows 11, do I have to safely eject an HDD or can I just unplug it? I can't seem to...

I'm new to Windows 11 and have a 2tb mechanical drive formatted in exFat that I regularly use on my Mac. When I connect the HDD to my Windows 11 PC I can open all my files, make changes, etc, however, there's no way for me to eject the drive, no matter what I do, the option to do it it's just not there.However, if I connect my 32gb thumb drive, it works as I would expect it, I can move, delete, etc and if I click the small hidden item menu, I can "safely eject" my device.Can someone help me? I'm going crazy here and can't seem to find a solution, why is it not working the same with the HDD? Am

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Can't safely eject an external HDD

I used an external HDD to download a game (Forza Horizon 5) and now I can't safely eject it (I get the "Device in use prompt"). Before whenever I turned off the laptop or ejected the HDD the power light turned off but now even when I shut down the laptop the power light stays on. I tried ejection through Disk Manager, through Device Manager and using the Run Command (I got a prompt that said "the device is not removable and cannot be ejected or unplugged") and still can't safely eject. Thanks for any help.

 

Can't safely eject an external HDD

Is it safe to eject if I shutdown the PC but the HDD's power button is still on (that didn't happen before)? I had another HDD that might had broken down bc I unplugged while it was transferring data.

 

Did not eject USB HDD before unplugging it...

The USB HDD was idle...it was not doing anything and I unplugged it without ejecting it..all of the files were closed and not accessed by any program...Could some files get corrupted ?


Another Question...If I have a file open on the USB HDD or if something is being written or read from the USB HDD and then I eject the disk, Will I get a "Safe to Remove Hardware" notification ?

I am asking because I didn't know if the USB HDD was in USE and then I ejected and I received a "Safe to Remove Hardware" notification..so I unplugged the USB HDD..Am I ok ? was the USB HDD active when I ejected it ?