Why can't I eject external HD sometimes?

[alienationware]

One of the most annoying things about WinXP is if you plug in an external USB HD which contains a lot of videos and you either thumbnail the videos or play them, WinXP won't let you eject the HD even after you've closed all windows pertaining to the HD. WinXP will give the error message, "Device is currently in use". Damn right it is. Anyone know how to get rid of this problem?

 

[scuttle.vb]

i also have the same problem.u could try out the following:
With the HD connected right click and click on its Properties option.
Properties->Hardware->Properties->Policies
Here make sure that the HD is optimized for performance.
For me the above worked for some time only though.
Now i simply kill explorer.exe from the task manager and start it again as a new task.Now clicking on the safely remove hardware option works fine.