external hd-can't "safely remove"

I keep getting the message "can't stop your generic volume device because it is in use" I did a little research here and disabled readyboost and in that same place another maxtor function. I went to services.msc under run. Any ideas? and please don't tell me to "pull it out" it has 11 gb of photos I don't want to mess with.
steph

 

i know this is pretty obvious, but have you closed the window that you may have had opened looking at the contents of the drive ..............

 

yeah, I had everything closed that is openly visible, KWIM? could there be something behind the scenes so to speak that I am not seeing? I even turned off my weekly backup. thanks for your help.

 

i never ever ever ever use that safely remover hardware thing... i've never had any problem just pulling the usb cord out. (and yes.. even on my external hd)

 

This a frequent annoyance. I suspect that when you have external storage connected for a significant time then background processes start connecting to it. Sometimes an application which you have opened in order to access one of the files keeps a connection after you have closed the file.

Provided you make sure that you have closed all the files on the external storage then just pull the cable out.

John

 

thanks for the reply. I am always nervous about "breaking the rules" LOL

 

john, I doublechecked my maxtor files and it didn't recognize the drive so I pulled it. somehow I think it got hung up like you said. thanks +1 rep

 

tip

pulling the cable out after everything is done transfering and what not you can pull it out physically even if windows says its being used.

honestly ive been doing that for years and nothing has happened with usbs, hdd, and memory sticks, just as long as everything is done transfering.

Note: doesnt work with mp3 players like ipod and samsung p2

 

I used to just pull them out, but as a habit i go to safely remove hardware now. usually nothing will happen if your not in the process of transfering files. if your really paranoid, try backing up the photos onto the laptop/computer if you have space as a temporary safe guard measure. good luck!

 

I usually just pull the cord, but another (safer but tedious) option is to shut down the computer, disconnect, and boot up again.

 

That message means that something is still using the disk, and pulling it WILL corrupt something. The errors caused might be recoverable, but they also might not. When you save data to disk, it actually gets written to the memory cache on your computer, then saved to the disk at a better time. If you pull the disk before it has been fully written, BAM! it's gone.

Just because YOU don't know there's a problem doesn't mean one isn't there. Honestly, have you actually checked every single bit of data after you've done such a thing? Chkdsk doesn't cut it here. Maybe in a year from now you'll notice that some of the pictures from your 4 yr-old's birthday are corrupted, but you just never looked at them in the past year. Or some old song you only listen to once in a while gets some pops or garbles in it.

Once in a while the system gets stuck, and you might have to do this, but it is idiotic to tell someone, "duh, I've never had a problem, so windows is just st00pid!"

To find out what's holding the disk open, download the command line tool "handle.exe" from sysinternals. That will tell you every file that is open and by what process. Then you can shut down that process.

 

I always just unplug things and have done for many, many years and have never had a problem.

But, if you're concerned right click on the external hard disk icon in my computer and click properties and then hardware. Choose the drive from the list and double click on it - under "policies" choose "optimixe for quick removal". Oh and make sure it's not being used for ready boost.