What actually works for "Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device" error?

Hi all:

It gets somewhat annoying when I can't safely eject USB SSDs, flash drives, and so on. Before someone posts some standard "HOWTO", I've read most of them, and they don't help with my situation.

For example, I did some data recovery recently and copied the recovered data to a Samsung T7 SSD. As soon as I try to eject it...Bingo! 

- I tried disabling real-time A/V protection.

- Eject is not available for these drives in This PC, nor is it available in Disk Management, nor in Device Mangler.

- I refuse to log off and on again to be able to do this. That's patently ridiculous.

Forgetting the nonsense in the so-called "HOWTOs" floating around the web, what actually works for resolving this?

Thanks 

Hi, the files are still being read or are active in memory or in a Temp Folder.

Reboot and while it is rebooting when drive light goes out or is is the state where it is about to read BIOS pull the cord on it/jack/whatever.

Just wait a minute after doing any active transfers to the device (in case there is unflushed data), then disconnect it.

Windows (should) no longer be using "lazy writes" to external drives, so the art we all learned of "safely ejecting" is no longer required.

BTW the message you are getting is usually because you have some program onpen that recently accessed the drive - probably File Explorer

Hi, the files are still being read or are active in memory or in a Temp Folder.

 

Reboot and while it is rebooting when drive light goes out or is is the state where it is about to read BIOS pull the cord on it/jack/whatever.

Appreciate the help, but please re-read my post. If I consider logging off to achieve this each time, you want me to reboot? Simply uneccessary in this day and age.

Instead, I discovered that typing:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

into a command prompt run at Administrator level will bring up the Safely Remove Hardware full menu (as in screenshot).

Checking Display device components will display vendor name and model number, where possible.

You can then select a drive and click Stop to eject the drive.

Edited by Shplad, 13 April 2024 - 01:31 PM.

Glad you found what you wanted, you usually do.

Shplad,

I have lifetime licenses to USB Safely Remove for both of my computers.  I often find that USB and external HDDs cannot be immediately disconnected when doing large multi-file copies.  The usual culprits are the Windows Indexing Service and "Everything" (Void Tools) freeware, which I use as my primary computer file search engine.

I have set my USB devices to "Better Performance" to increase copy speeds and USB Safely Remove lets me see what is preventing a safe removal.  Normally, it is just a matter of waiting a few minutes, trying to eject the device again, and all is good.

YMMV.  I highly recommend both products.  I have no interest in either company.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Hello to a fellow Canuck!

I suspect the indexing service. However, when I went to look for it in the Services console, I couldn't find it. I didn't know it was contained in the wsearch service.

Google results suggest that I should run this at a prompt before trying to eject a drive:

sc stop "wsearch" && sc config "wsearch" start=disabled

Edited by Shplad, 14 April 2024 - 12:14 PM.

I've heard nothing but good things about the program but USD 20.00 per year? That strikes me as being overpriced. 

I think I'll just stick with my batch files for now. Thanks.

Well, it's funny you said that, Dan. Because in the past, Linux never complained about my flash drives being corrupted when Windows did. When I brought this up on another web forum for techs, I got lynched for saying so.

Yeah, you don't want to pull out too early. 

Shplad,

I purchased the lifetime license back in 2019.  Now a lifetime licence is $44.90 USD.

https://safelyremove.com/order.htm

I had a purchased an annual license before that.  I was just so happy with the software that I went for the "full meal deal" when my one-year license expired.  I don't regret that decision for a minute.

To each, their own.  I was just sharing my experience with a product that might be of assistance to you.  I have no affiliation with the company other than being a completely satisfied customer.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

No worries. It was appreciated Phil. Thanks.

I have found that, whenever this happens to me.

Lots of extra time cures the problem