safely remove hardware

patrickv

Active Member
every so often when i try to remove usb devices it says "device cannot be ejected..balh blah..being used by another program blah blah"

so i close all programs that were relating or reading from USB and i still get the same error. the only way to removeit, is to either log off or terminate explorer.exe via processes.
what actually cause this and how can it be stopped ?
 
The fast and quick method of removing any usb device is to simply go into the device manager and open up the section that shows the intended device. For dsl here that would under network adapters. You simply right click on the item in question to select the update driver, disable, or uninstall option in that menu.
 
The fast and quick method of removing any usb device is to simply go into the device manager and open up the section that shows the intended device. For dsl here that would under network adapters. You simply right click on the item in question to select the update driver, disable, or uninstall option in that menu.

thx for the tip PC eye but isn't it the same as when you right-click on the taskbar and "safely remove" ? i never try going to device manager but i will and see what happen. Thanks

edit : wow, why are you talking avout dsl ? i was talking about pendrives only:D
 
Well that was simply explaining about one type of usb device and how to go about seeing a problem corrected, an update going on, or how to disable or remove a particular item. There you would look for the name of the pen drive most likely.

You will probably see that under storage devices there. By looking in the DM you can see if there is anything under "other devices" with a yellow mark next to it as well. I generally ignore the icon in the notification area and go directly into the DM to correct or remove things there.
 
well actually you are not getting the point, i'll ask again, Why can't i safely remove my usb devices ?
why do i get the error saying "device cannot be ejected etc..etc.."

i know most usb's that are infected causes this but sometimes new (just purchased) usb drives does this
 
For seeing problems with that one idea when seeing Windows problems there is to try something like Driver Magician or QuickUnplug utilities found at http://shareme.com/details/safely-remove.html

Often Windows won't fully detect a device causing error messages. Sometimes the type of device will be the problem when going to remove it. This used to be more of a problem seen with 98 then XP. But the number of different types of usb devices has obviously increased since then. See if one of those will help you out there.
 
For seeing problems with that one idea when seeing Windows problems there is to try something like Driver Magician or QuickUnplug utilities found at http://shareme.com/details/safely-remove.html

Often Windows won't fully detect a device causing error messages. Sometimes the type of device will be the problem when going to remove it. This used to be more of a problem seen with 98 then XP. But the number of different types of usb devices has obviously increased since then. See if one of those will help you out there.

thx men much appreciated
 
In all this time I've never actually used the safely remove option but simply ignore it and go into the device manager directly. That's a habit retained from the old 98 days where there was no safely remove option seen then. :P

Driver Magician is a familiar name. I've heard that one on several occasions and yet to try it out here. But give those a try and see how things go for you there.
 
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