formatting/defragging an external drive

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Guest

Hello... I am having trouble backing up my primary drive because I cannot get
my external drive emptied. The external drive shows no folders or files in
the window, but under properties, it says it is full. I have "show hidden
files" checked. Plus, the external will not format because it says I have
programs open on it... but there shouldn't be anything on it. I also cannot
get it to defrag because it says there is not enough room. One thing I
noticed, when I emptied the old backup file off the external, I got a notice
that it was too big for the recycle bin, but I said I wanted to empty anyway.
BUT I didn't gain any empty space. How do I get the external drive emptied
so I can do a backup? Please help.
 
First try emptying your recycle bin. If that doesn't solve the problem then
go into disk manager (start->run->diskmgmt.msc). Locate the drive in the
lower panel, right click select change driver letter and the select remove.
Respong to any pop-ups accordingly. If you can't get the drive dismounted
this way, then do it in safe mode. Once you have the drive dismounted you
can then format it.

There's no point in defragging an external backup device, so don't do that.
 
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