Can't Stop a USB Drive

[DWS]

Hi,

When I use Excel 2007 SP2 or Excel 2003 (also with the latest SP) on WXP
Professional SP3 to work with a spreadsheet of my USB Drive, a temporary file
remains on the drive after saving and even after exiting Excel normally. This
temporary file remains locked, although there seems to be no process
accessing it. In consequence I cannot stop the US device.

I tried Sysinternals' handle.exe, Unlocker, and USB Safely Remove, but none
of them recognizes any process keeping the lock.

On a WXP Professional SP2 machine with Excel 2003 the device is released
normally.

Is there anybody with any suggestions? Maybe any known flaws of WXP SP3?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Regards,
Dietmar.

 

[R. McCarty]

Your problem is likely not waiting a sufficient length of time after you
close the program. The workspace files ( ~'filename.__' ) will close if
you give it time. They are not persistent and should close within 2 - 4
seconds on a traditional hard drive ( longer on a USB removable drive ).

Flash devices have varying speeds. You might want to test yours and
if below par consider a newer/faster device.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Tuesday, June 02, 2009 11:08:01 AM, and on a whim,
DWS pounded out on the keyboard:

Hi,

When I use Excel 2007 SP2 or Excel 2003 (also with the latest SP) on WXP
Professional SP3 to work with a spreadsheet of my USB Drive, a temporary file
remains on the drive after saving and even after exiting Excel normally. This
temporary file remains locked, although there seems to be no process
accessing it. In consequence I cannot stop the US device.

I tried Sysinternals' handle.exe, Unlocker, and USB Safely Remove, but none
of them recognizes any process keeping the lock.

On a WXP Professional SP2 machine with Excel 2003 the device is released
normally.

Is there anybody with any suggestions? Maybe any known flaws of WXP SP3?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Regards,
Dietmar.

Hi Dietmar,

Ah, the wonders of MS placing it's temp files in the same folder as the
working file rather than the designated temp folders! I doubt it has
anything to do with SP3.

Why not copy the file to the Desktop and work on it from there, then
copy it back to the USB drive when finished? And then see if the temp
file remains after the file is exited. It may have something to do with
Excel.

Have you tried the same with Word with the same results? I'd be curious
to know.

Terry R.

 

[Charles W Davis]

Hi,

When I use Excel 2007 SP2 or Excel 2003 (also with the latest SP) on WXP
Professional SP3 to work with a spreadsheet of my USB Drive, a temporary
file
remains on the drive after saving and even after exiting Excel normally.
This
temporary file remains locked, although there seems to be no process
accessing it. In consequence I cannot stop the US device.

I tried Sysinternals' handle.exe, Unlocker, and USB Safely Remove, but
none
of them recognizes any process keeping the lock.

On a WXP Professional SP2 machine with Excel 2003 the device is released
normally.

Is there anybody with any suggestions? Maybe any known flaws of WXP SP3?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Regards,
Dietmar.

I suggest that you move the file from the Flash drive to your hard drive, do
your work, save the changed files to the hard drive and then move the file
to Flash drive.

 

[DWS]

Hi R,

Last time I tried to be more patient than my computer. After app. 8 hours I
lost. )

So, it's no timeout problem, it's persistent.

Regards,
Dietmar.

 

[DWS]

Hi Terry,

You are right, swapping files around is an option. But I am always lazy
); and I need this particular spreadsheet on my USB stick often. That is
why I am somewhat annoyed about this new "feature". (I cannot remember I had
this phenomenon before WXP SP3.)

I have tried with Word as well, and there all temporary files are purged as
expected when you close the application.

Regards,
Dietmar.

 

[R. McCarty]

What is the format of the USB Flash drive ? If NTFS, is your PC
actively using "Indexing" ?

 

[DWS]

No, it is a simple FAT32 volume.

What is the format of the USB Flash drive ? If NTFS, is your PC
actively using "Indexing" ?

 

[R. McCarty]

Thanks. I tested a couple of Flash drives with a simple worksheet. On
every close of Excel the workspace file closed in a just a few seconds.
The only other thing might be your security software setup on your PC.
Maybe the real-time scanning is not releasing a file handle on the temp
file.

No, it is a simple FAT32 volume.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Wednesday, June 03, 2009 3:58:03 AM, and on a
whim, DWS pounded out on the keyboard:

Hi Terry,

You are right, swapping files around is an option. But I am always lazy
); and I need this particular spreadsheet on my USB stick often. That is
why I am somewhat annoyed about this new "feature". (I cannot remember I had
this phenomenon before WXP SP3.)

I have tried with Word as well, and there all temporary files are purged as
expected when you close the application.

Regards,
Dietmar.

If it's a "particular" file you use all the time, I would create a batch
file that would auto copy the file to a hard drive location, pause so
you could work on the file (using either PAUSE or START /wait on Excel),
then copies the file back when you are done.

Have you checked Task Manager to verify Excel has closed, or is the
process still running, causing the temp file to remain?


Terry R.

 

[DWS]

Hi,

I detected something right now: Normal spreadsheets seem to work well, but
if there are digitally signed VBA macros, the problem starts. Maybe the
challenge of both a memory stick and VBA is too much for Excel.

Regards,
Dietmar.