Safely Remove Hardware problems

[steve-terry]

I have Windows Vista. Whenever I use a USB memory stick and I'm
finished, I click on Safely Remove Hardware, but I get a message
saying that it is unable to disconnect because something is in use.
But I get this message when all applications are closed. I tried
looking at the Task Manager, and it shows no applications running.
When I look in Properties of the memory stick's drive the indexing box
is unchecked, so it's not that. I end up having to shut down the
computer in order to pull out the memory stick. How can I find out
what's going on and fix it?

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Steve

With the USB memory stick inserted, open the Device Manager in Control Panel
and expand the Disk Drives. Right click the USB Memory Stick item and select
Properties/Policies Tab.

Click the "Optimize for quick removal" option. Click OK. You can now remove
the memory stick without using the Safely Remove component.

 

[Paul Randall]

Using this method, how do I know it is safe to remove? Suppose I thought my
script is writing a 2Kb file to it, but it is in the middle of writing a 2Gb
file to it?

-Paul Randall

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Paul

The Optimize for safe removal, turns off the write caching, which means that
writing to the drive takes place immediately. When you transfer a file to
the memory stick and the progress dialog shows the saving/moving/copying is
complete, then you can safely remove the memory stick with the assurance
that no further writing to the memory stick will be taking place.

Using the optimize for performance option, enables the write caching, the
transfer may not take place immediately since the file (or some of the file)
will be stored in the enabled cache waiting to be written. You may not get a
visible prompt that the file has been transferred to the memory stick. This
is why you will sometimes get the message that the memory stick cannot be
removed when you use the safely remove hardware component.

While having the write caching enabled does allow you to go to other tasks
faster, I always use the optimize for safe removal, since you can never tell
when a power outage or some other event may cause you to end up with the
loss of data.

 

[Paul Randall]

Paul

The Optimize for safe removal, turns off the write caching, which means
that writing to the drive takes place immediately.

Maybe it starts immediately, but depending on the amount of data, the
transfer could take minutes.

When you transfer a file to the memory stick and the progress dialog shows
the saving/moving/copying is complete, then you can safely remove the
memory stick with the assurance that no further writing to the memory
stick will be taking place.

When the progress dialog is complete, it disappears. I typically have a
bunch of windows open, any one of which might have done something to make it
the active window, so I never know for sure if the transfer is done.

Using the optimize for performance option, enables the write caching, the
transfer may not take place immediately since the file (or some of the
file) will be stored in the enabled cache waiting to be written. You may
not get a visible prompt that the file has been transferred to the memory
stick. This is why you will sometimes get the message that the memory
stick cannot be removed when you use the safely remove hardware component.

This is sometimes why you get the message. There can be other reasons.

While having the write caching enabled does allow you to go to other tasks
faster, I always use the optimize for safe removal, since you can never
tell when a power outage or some other event may cause you to end up with
the loss of data.

Whether or not write caching is enabled, I think that one should always use
'eject' or 'safely remove hardware' to get positive indication that it is
safe to remove a USB memory stick.

I think part of the OP's problem is that there are many windows open and it
is a pain to go through them all to see which one might have a hold on the
USB memory stick. I have the same problem as the OP -- sometimes I just
can't figure out why its not safe to remove the stick, and I don't want to
close windows to find out the culprit.

-Paul Randall

 

[Guest]

Optimizing for safe removal does not solve the problem, it still says that it
cannot disconnect the USB drive when I try to use Safely Remove Hardware.
All apps are closed, the Handle utility says there are no handles, Indexing
Service is disabled, yet it still says the drive is in use.