Windows 10: Issues removing USB external drive

First, I hope I am in the correct forum for some assistance.

I have a 2TB WD Passport plugged into a USB port I use for back-up and transferring files to my wife's computer. Most times, when I click the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon in the taskbar, it will give me the "Safe to remove hardware ..." message and, I unplug the drive. However, there are times, I get a message that states something to the effect of I an guessing, I did not write the message down "The drive is still in use. Please close the program using the drive before attempting to unplug it." As stated earlier, this is not the exact message. My alternative at this time is to close any programs I am using, shut down and then unplug the drive.

Questions ...

1 Is there a way to tell what might still be using the drive, if I have closed the folders I generally have open?

2 Is there some other way to try to eject the drive?


I am open to any answers or suggestions to stop me from having to shut down the computer before unplugging the drive.

:)

 

help. USB drive isn't assigned a drive letter.

Any usb flash drive I plug into my computer isn't assigned a drive letter. The physical drive shows in the "safely remove hardware" but it doesnt show up in disk management. I have tried to populate the volume thru the safely remove hardware properties window and it does pop up in the list but it doesn't stay there. This isn't a format or assign a letter problem. It's more complicated then that. Maybe one of the services needed for usb drive management was disabled? Suggestions needed. btw external usb harddrives work fine.

 

HELP!!! External Drive issues!!

you're in luck, the guy with way too much external storage is here to the rescue!


step 1: try with a different USB cable

step 2: take the drive out of the enclosure and connect it internally to your PC

quite likely the cable or enclosure has died. if you're re-initialising the disk you might actually be erasing it... so dont do that.

 

External hard drive not recognised

Thanks for this. I've done what you suggested and been through all the steps mentioned in the article. The hard drive works fine on a Mac computer, and I've managed to copy the information on it. It must be a Surface issue so I'll try to get a chat line tomorrow.