Questions on "Safely Remove Hardware"

[ggull]

1) I"m suppoed to be able to hot swap USB external hard drives, but most of
the time when I try to dismount one by clicking on the little green arrow
icon at the lower right of the screen (system tray?), and then try to remove
the drive, I get a message something like "The device 'Generic volume'
cannot be stopped right now.. Try stopping the device again later." This
happens even if there is nothing executing (that *I* started, at least) nor
even any windows open, much less anything accessing the drive. Is there any
way to make this go better? What might make the system think it can't
remove the drive but might later?

2) I've got one of those built-in multi-card readers (for SD, etc). If I
read one card and remove it that works. But it seems that this removes the
*reader*, not just the card, and if I insert another card it's not visible.
How can I re-activate the reader (short of rebooting), or how can I dismount
the card while leaving the reader active?

 

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

1) I"m suppoed to be able to hot swap USB external hard drives, but most
of the time when I try to dismount one by clicking on the little green
arrow icon at the lower right of the screen (system tray?), and then try
to remove the drive, I get a message something like "The device 'Generic
volume' cannot be stopped right now.. Try stopping the device again
later." This happens even if there is nothing executing (that *I*
started, at least) nor even any windows open, much less anything accessing
the drive. Is there any way to make this go better? What might make the
system think it can't remove the drive but might later?

2) I've got one of those built-in multi-card readers (for SD, etc). If I
read one card and remove it that works. But it seems that this removes
the *reader*, not just the card, and if I insert another card it's not
visible. How can I re-activate the reader (short of rebooting), or how can
I dismount the card while leaving the reader active?

I can't answer the first part, but the second part you go into Windows
Explorer, right click on the appropriate drive & then select 'eject', then
pull the memory card out & the slot will work as soon as you insert another
card.
Regards Mike.

 

[Ron Sommer]

For the card reader, go to the policies of the drive and "Optimize for quick
removal".
Do not use Safely remove hardware.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

1) I"m suppoed to be able to hot swap USB external hard drives, but most of
the time when I try to dismount one by clicking on the little green arrow
icon at the lower right of the screen (system tray?), and then try to remove
the drive, I get a message something like "The device 'Generic volume'
cannot be stopped right now.. Try stopping the device again later." This
happens even if there is nothing executing (that *I* started, at least) nor
even any windows open, much less anything accessing the drive. Is there any
way to make this go better? What might make the system think it can't
remove the drive but might later?

From archive...

Usually at least one open handle to the drive prevents
the save removal.
Try to discover who has an open handle to your USB drive:

Get Sysinternals ProcessExplorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Ignore the initial message 'No symbols defined'.
Go to 'Find'->'Find Handle' and enter your drive letter like
U: and click 'Search'.

Then it lists all processes that hold open handles to your drive.



Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[ggull]

Thanks, Ron. That did it.

For the card reader, go to the policies of the drive and "Optimize for
quick removal".
Do not use Safely remove hardware.

 

[ggull]

Whoops -- ignore last reply, that was meant for Mike.

I checked the policies (Properties, Hardware Tab, select Generic USB SD
reader..., Properties button below, Policies tab), and it's already set to
"Optimize for quick removal: ... disables write caching...so youcan
disconnect... without using the Safe Removal icon".

Does this mean I can simply insert and pull out the cards without even
needing to Eject, as Mike suggested?

 

[ggull]

Whoops -- ignore last reply, that was meant for Mike.

I checked the policies (Properties, Hardware Tab, select Generic USB SD
reader..., Properties button below, Policies tab), and it's already set to
"Optimize for quick removal: ... disables write caching...so youcan
disconnect... without using the Safe Removal icon".

Does this mean I can simply insert and pull out the cards without even
needing to Eject, as Mike suggested?

 

[ggull]

I can't answer the first part, but the second part you go into Windows
Explorer, right click on the appropriate drive & then select 'eject', then
pull the memory card out & the slot will work as soon as you insert
another card.
Regards Mike.

Thanks, Mike. That did it (unless I didn't need to do anything at all ..
see my reply to Ron). I can even watch the "drive"'s icon dim when I eject
it.

 

[ggull]

"Uwe Sieber" wrote..

From archive...

Usually at least one open handle to the drive prevents
the save removal.
Try to discover who has an open handle to your USB drive:

Get Sysinternals ProcessExplorer
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Ignore the initial message 'No symbols defined'.
Go to 'Find'->'Find Handle' and enter your drive letter like
U: and click 'Search'.

Then it lists all processes that hold open handles to your drive.

Thanks, Uwe. I did this after some typical activity on an external drive
F:, and there is one process listed. Here it is, by column, unless I make a
mistake in the long string in {}
Process: System
<litle triangle symbol>: 4 {I guess this is the PID?}
Type: Handle
Handle or DLL: F:\System Volume
Information\_restor{7514DDF7-E082-F4FB6-9635-49b7303C51BF}\RP266\change.log

I then tried stopping the drive and got the "cannot be stopped right now"
message.

This seems to happen most or all of the time with all of my external USB
hard disks. Some NTFS, some FAT32 (to maintain compatibility with WIn Me on
another system). Various makes, models and sizes.

So ... is there anything I can do to prevent this, or clear it up before
trying to safely remove the drive?

 

[Rhonda Lea Kirk]

For the card reader, go to the policies of the drive and "Optimize
for quick removal".
Do not use Safely remove hardware.

<slaps forehead> Well, that certainly solved my stupid printer problem.

Thanks. It was driving me crazy.

rl

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Handle or DLL: F:\System Volume
Information\_restor{7514DDF7-E082-F4FB6-9635-49b7303C51BF}\RP266\change.log

That is the XP 'System Restore'. XP activates this by default
for all 'fixed' drives, regardless if USB or not. No idea
what it should be good for on an USB drive...

Right click on 'My Computer' -> 'Properties' ->
Tab 'System Restore'.
Here you can deactivate it for your drive.


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[ggull]

That is the XP 'System Restore'. XP activates this by default
for all 'fixed' drives, regardless if USB or not. No idea
what it should be good for on an USB drive...

Right click on 'My Computer' -> 'Properties' ->
Tab 'System Restore'.
Here you can deactivate it for your drive.

Thanks again, Uwe.
This is very clear and really sounds like it should work, but some
strangeness here --
I do what you say, get to the 'System Restore' tab. My three internal
partitions are all listed as Status: Monitoring. The external F: drive has
Status: Offline, and when I select it the "Settings" button grays out.

So I invoke ProcessExplorer again, and have the same Handle as before
(except it's \RP267\change.log instead of ...266...)

(and I check the 'system restore' tab again, same result as above)

??? It's like the system isn't using it, and the left hand at least doesn't
think it's there for purposes of system restore, but the right hand is
keeping the handle open/active/whatever and objects when I try to dismount
the disk.

Any further ideas ?

Should we repost with a refined subject line? or crosspost to
....windowsxp.hardware?

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Thanks again, Uwe.
This is very clear and really sounds like it should work, but some
strangeness here --
I do what you say, get to the 'System Restore' tab. My three internal
partitions are all listed as Status: Monitoring. The external F: drive has
Status: Offline, and when I select it the "Settings" button grays out.

Never seen status 'Offline'... I would try to attach the
drive to another computer, maybe an Windows 98/ME piece
and remove the 'System Volume Information' folder here.

Maybe your XP allows then to deactivate the System Restore...

I've tried to check out where the drive settings for the
System Restore are stored in the registry but I havn't
found anythig drive specific.


Uwe

 

[ggull]

Never seen status 'Offline'... I would try to attach the
drive to another computer, maybe an Windows 98/ME piece
and remove the 'System Volume Information' folder here.

Could I not remvoe 'System Volume Information' on the XP computer? Isn't
there danger in that? This is beyond my knowledge. If deemed advisable, I
could try on an ME computer .. with a USB1 port .

BUT -- I think I have found a work-around, or maybe this is what I should
have known to do all along. Bear with me here...

When I double click the green arrow icon in the system tray, and call up the
Safely Remove Hardware window, there are two Hardware Devices listed (at
least when I only have one external drive connected). They are both generic
"USB Mass Storage Device," indistinguishable.

One of these is the all-in-one card reader I mentioned earlier in the
thread, and one is the hard drive. I could just guess which is which (or
depend on experience), select it and click Stop. But being a cautious guy,
I always double click and pop up the "Stop a Hardware Device" window. This
lists (when I've selected the external drive generic USB device):

USB Mass Storage Device
Generic volume - (F
ST330063 1A USB Device

I guess I've usually/always selected the most obvious one to try and stop,
the
Generic Volume - (F
After all, it is device F: that I want to stop/remove. Or I may even try
the top device, USB MassStorage Device. .

Out of frustration since my last post I tried selecting the last device,
ST330063....
Lo and behold, when I then Stop it, I get the message that it's "Safe to
remove" I've tried this a few (4 or 5) times now and it's worked each
time. (Maybe I'd done this before, but had not correlated doing so with the
rare success in dismounting.)

If this continues to work, I guess I'm happy with it, though I wish I
understood more fully what is going on. I'll try this with other external
drives as I use them, and report back if this method fails to work or I have
further problems.

Thanks, Uwe, for all the help. If nothing else, it kept me trying various
things. If your curiosity would like me to try getting rid of the "system
volume information" folder, I could do so. But I'd want some guidance, both
as to how to do so and as to the safety of mucking with the system folders.