No "Eject" option for USB Pen Drive

[RJK]

My 3 1/2" bay camera card reader has 4 "multi" slots for camera cards, a USB
port, firewire port, and sound jacks.

In Windows Explorer, on right-click pop-out menus there are "Eject" options
for the camera card slots but, not for the USB port - when for example I've
got a flash memory pen-drive plugged into it.

The USB/Green arrow thingy in system tray often won't let me "Safely
remove..." the pen-drive/letter it because somthing annoying like PowerDVD
,(which I haven't even used since boot-up, and in which I have rummaged in,
in the past, to try and find settings to stop it slapping a handle on of a
drive letter assigned to the pen-drive), is holding onto it. So I have to
e.g ProcessExplorer and terminate the PowerDVD handle, and then I can
"Safely remove hardware..." ....i.e the pen-drive.

So, my question is, why is there an "Eject" option on the right-click
pop-out menu for the memory card slot/drive letters but, not for the USB
port, when e.g. a pen-drive is plugged into it

regards, Richard

 

[Guest]

I never noticed it before until I read your post. But my PC does the same
thing. I guess you cannot "eject" a USB device but only DVD's, CD's and
memorycard drives. Does it bother you? Happy putering :~)

 

[Gord Dibben]

Add this line to a shortcut target

%windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

Run when you want to "eject" a pendrive.


Gord

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Add this line to a shortcut target

%windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

Run when you want to "eject" a pendrive.

The OP already stated that he's using that but that it doesn't work because
another process always allocates the drive:

To RJK: Like Byte said, in my experience USB drives are not something that
can be ejected in a default Windows setup. Only devices that can physically
perform some sort of ejection have this option (like the drive tray on a
CD/DVD-ROM). Perhaps your card reader came with special drivers that added
this particular function to Explorer's right-click menu, but it's not
"normal."

On the subject of ejection, what has bothered me since Windows 95 is that
while Windows (Explorer) is smart enough to know how to OPEN the CD-ROM
tray, it has no concept of CLOSING the damn thing! Even Media Player is
smart enough to keep track of how many times you've pressed the Eject
shortcut and it tries to do the opposite thing each time. It'll get it wrong
if you have MANUALLY open/closed the drawer, but then you just need to hit
the shortcut again and you'll get the desired effect. Why can't Explorer be
this smart? But I'm ranting....

 

[RJK]

Thankyou all,

FWIW my 3 1/2" card reader bay didn't have, or need, any drivers installed
for it, just one cable from camera card slots that connected to a mobo
(twin) USB pin header, ...and which causes the 'next available' four 4 drive
letters to appear on my drives "tree" ...in my case I:\ J:\ K:\ L:\
....and a another cable that connects to just "one side" of a mobo USB pin
header for the single USB port on the front of the thing - I made the effort
to connect it up to gain the convenience of having a USB port at the front
of my system box, rather than have a USB hub dangling around. ...I like to
have as much as possible connected up, even if I don't use it much i.e. it's
irritating to suddenly find that one eventually wants something but, it's
not instantly there, because one was too lazy to connect it up properly in
the first place, ...if you see what I mean !! ...I digress...

It's not a really a problem, ...though it's interesting that software
lurking in my machine that places handles on drive letters, doesn't seem to
grab card slots, ...though having said that, I can't remember if I've ever
had trouble "ejecting" a memory card because something else had hold of a
card drive letter, ...I don't think I have. ...in any event I'll just keep
an eye-out with ProcessExplorer - PowerDVD may pay the price !

"Ejecting" a camera memory card doesn't physically eject it anyway, (just
trying to be clear), it just sort of dismisses the memory card file listing,
and then I feel safer and happier when I yank the card out !!! ...and I
think the blue LED on my Siemens USB pen-drive goes out when I "Safely
remove hardware" it, can't double check that now, ...left it in a friends
house miles away, ...just did it with a emaxUSB pen drive, LED goes out,
obvously normal behaviour for a USB pen drive that's been "Safely hardware
removed".

The amber LED on the front of my card reader, indicating that a camera card
is plugged in, doesn't go out when the card it right-click "ejected,"
though it's file listing is dismissed - and the next card plugged in is
instantly read. If I "Safely remove hardware" any camera card slot drive
letters, I have to reboot to get them back, ...perhaps all to do with the
ic in the card reader bay ?

I think the theory is that one can quite safely just yank out camera cards
without "ejecting" them ...ding dong etc ? ...but, a while ago I pulled a
"Compact Flash Card CF ? ...(big one with two long rows of "pin-holes"),
out of a card reader bay slot on another computer that wouldn't right-click
"eject" and it corrupted, and wouldn't reformat - i.e. it died. Perhaps
coincidence !

.....so this why I've been rambling on about it all.

regards, Richard

 

[Jeff Johnson]

FWIW my 3 1/2" card reader bay didn't have, or need, any drivers installed
for it, just one cable from camera card slots that connected to a mobo
(twin) USB pin header, ...and which causes the 'next available' four 4
drive letters to appear on my drives "tree" ...in my case I:\ J:\ K:\ L:\

...and a another cable that connects to just "one side" of a mobo USB pin
header for the single USB port on the front of the thing - I made the
effort to connect it up to gain the convenience of having a USB port at
the front of my system box, rather than have a USB hub dangling around.
...I like to have as much as possible connected up, even if I don't use it
much i.e. it's irritating to suddenly find that one eventually wants
something but, it's not instantly there, because one was too lazy to
connect it up properly in the first place, ...if you see what I mean !!
...I digress...

It's not a really a problem, ...though it's interesting that software
lurking in my machine that places handles on drive letters, doesn't seem
to grab card slots, ...though having said that, I can't remember if I've
ever had trouble "ejecting" a memory card because something else had hold
of a card drive letter, ...I don't think I have. ...in any event I'll
just keep an eye-out with ProcessExplorer - PowerDVD may pay the price !

"Ejecting" a camera memory card doesn't physically eject it anyway, (just
trying to be clear), it just sort of dismisses the memory card file
listing, and then I feel safer and happier when I yank the card out !!!
...and I think the blue LED on my Siemens USB pen-drive goes out when I
"Safely remove hardware" it, can't double check that now, ...left it in a
friends house miles away, ...just did it with a emaxUSB pen drive, LED
goes out, obvously normal behaviour for a USB pen drive that's been
"Safely hardware removed".

The amber LED on the front of my card reader, indicating that a camera
card is plugged in, doesn't go out when the card it right-click "ejected,"
though it's file listing is dismissed - and the next card plugged in is
instantly read. If I "Safely remove hardware" any camera card slot drive
letters, I have to reboot to get them back, ...perhaps all to do with the
ic in the card reader bay ?

I think the theory is that one can quite safely just yank out camera cards
without "ejecting" them ...ding dong etc ? ...but, a while ago I pulled a
"Compact Flash Card CF ? ...(big one with two long rows of "pin-holes"),
out of a card reader bay slot on another computer that wouldn't
right-click "eject" and it corrupted, and wouldn't reformat - i.e. it
died. Perhaps coincidence !

....so this why I've been rambling on about it all.

Actually, after reading all that I realize that I do have a similar (and
rather silly) situation. When I use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the
tray I not only see any USB drives that are plugged in but also my own card
reader (a "Dazzle") AND most of my hard drives (!!!). My card reader
apparently identifies itself as two drives (O: and R and I have learned
that I do NOT want to use the Eject feature on it simply to pull out an SD
card because if I do the reader stops functioning completely and I have to
pull out and re-insert the USB plug to get it to work again. So as you said,
I believe you can safely yank out an SD card or the like without telling the
system anything. (Of course, I always make sure nothing is writing to the
card at the time....) I've never had a Compact Flash card so I don't know if
they need to be ejected. I've never used "drive R:" on my card reader, just
O:.

I know that others have experienced similar silliness with Safely Remove
Hardware because there's at least one person out there writing his own
version of it which allows you to customize the list of "removable" items
that it will display. I don't remember the URL but a search on Google for
"safely remove hardware replacement" should probably give you good results.

 

[RJK]

Hi, ...yes, ...I do go on at length !

Perhaps you meant that you "...learnt to not 'Safely Remove hardware' drives
O:\ and R:\ ? ...and not as you actually said 'eject' them ? ...or when
you eject them, do the drive letters actually disappear for the session ?
....perhaps I've got the wrong end of the stick, or perhaps your hardware
reacts differently to mine when "ejecting" a drive letter ?

....e.g. my system tray "Safely Remove hardware" pop-out offers me, atm,
three items:-
Safely remove Mass Storage Device - Drive(G {a USB pen drive}
Safely remove Mass Storage Device - Drive(E {a USB external hd.}
Safely remove Mass Storage Device - Drive(I:,J:,K:,L {USB camera card
reader bay / 4x flash card slots)
....as per my current hardware arrangement, my 'internal' IDE and SATA hd
drives are not listed for safe removal, ...nor would I want or need to them
to be. Perhaps yours are showing due to some hot-swap hardware/software
features specific to your machine ?

On my machine, in Windows Explorer, default layout / left hand pane -
directory listing, card slot drives are the ones that will right-click |
"eject" | memory card - directory file listing is dismissed, (and then
Windows Explorer flies off to display something like Control Panel ...I
think !), ...the card slot / drive letters remains listed, and the next
memory card inserted, (same Windows session), in that drive is recognised
okay. ...as opposed to system tray "Safely remove hardware," where card
slot drive letters would disappear everywhere, and I would have to reboot to
get them back.

....all this is to do with differing hardware between you and I, I think,
but, I may later look into meddling with "customize the list of "removable"
items" , ....though I supect that this would incur maintenance of some
sort, and could interfere with my hardware, hd's etc. which are atm, how I
want them - with the drive letters I want - and they're not "moving around"
all over the place !

bfn, regards, Richard

 

[Jeff Johnson]

Perhaps you meant that you "...learnt to not 'Safely Remove hardware'
drives O:\ and R:\ ? ...and not as you actually said 'eject' them ?

Whoops, you're right. I meant I learned not use "remove" on them, but I just
noticed that they DO have the Eject command available in Explorer, whereas
my physical hard drives I: and HE:, which show up on the list of items that
can be safely removed, do NOT have Eject. Sheesh, what a mess, huh?

So now I test...put an SD card into O:...a window opens showing me the
files...close that window...right-click O: in Explorer and choose
Eject...and get a dialog box:

Cannot Eject Volume
---------------------------
An error was encountered trying to eject 'HP935 (O'.

BUT, the drive didn't disappear as it would have had I gone the safely
remove route.

Well, this has been fun.

 

[RJK]

NO, it's not a mess, it's just a little unfathomable but, more fathomable
with ProcessExplorer. Run it and you can then see what software, lurking in
your machine has attached file handles to which drive
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx
....then one can begin to tame that software
....the next consideration is hardware, perhaps your card reader hasn't got
something in it that facilitates an "eject,"
....I'm guessing now, the giveaway to that is that I start using big words
like facilitate !

regards, Richard