safely removing external USB drive

[Jo-Anne]

Sometimes when I've backed up my internal hard drive to an external USB hard
drive with Acronis True Image, I can't "safely remove" the external drive. I
click on Safely Remove Hardware and get told the device cannot be stopped
now and I should try later. Tonight I've been trying to remove the external
drive for at least 3 hours and am still getting the same message--and now
and then I see the light flash on the drive. It looks like the drive is
going to stay connected at least til morning.

Is there something I can do to be able to remove the drive in a reasonable
amount of time without running the risk of losing data?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[pjp]

Sometimes when I've backed up my internal hard drive to an external USB
hard drive with Acronis True Image, I can't "safely remove" the external
drive. I click on Safely Remove Hardware and get told the device cannot be
stopped now and I should try later. Tonight I've been trying to remove the
external drive for at least 3 hours and am still getting the same
message--and now and then I see the light flash on the drive. It looks
like the drive is going to stay connected at least til morning.

Is there something I can do to be able to remove the drive in a reasonable
amount of time without running the risk of losing data?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Restart the pc using Shutdown/Restart. While it's booting take the drive out
(earlier the better, immediately when it shuts down is best so even the BIOS
doesn't see it). Windows should flush anything required and stop anything
using the drive during the shutdown procedure so data should be ok. I
occasionally have the same problem but usually just selecting the option to
"safely remove" a second time is all that's required.

 

[Paul]

Sometimes when I've backed up my internal hard drive to an external USB hard
drive with Acronis True Image, I can't "safely remove" the external drive. I
click on Safely Remove Hardware and get told the device cannot be stopped
now and I should try later. Tonight I've been trying to remove the external
drive for at least 3 hours and am still getting the same message--and now
and then I see the light flash on the drive. It looks like the drive is
going to stay connected at least til morning.

Is there something I can do to be able to remove the drive in a reasonable
amount of time without running the risk of losing data?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

There is a thread here on the subject. In particular, the
accessing of a ".tib" file on the affected disk.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=242607

To analyze, you can get a copy of Process Explorer, click "Explorer.EXE"
then look in the lower pane for "File" entries. You might see the open file
on the external drive that way. At least, in the previous
thread, that is what the poster was checking.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

There is a second program called "Handle", and it runs from the
Command Prompt. I tried changing directory to where I have
this unpacked, and typed "handle", and it seems to give me
a list of open files on my system. An open file prevents
Safe Removal. Virtually everything open right now, is a file on
my C: partition (and of course, there's little chance of
"Safely Removing" a C: partition).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx

I believe the person who wrote Handle, thinks Process Explorer
is a functional equivalent, but you might like the output of
Handle better.

You can always redirect the output to a file, such as

handle > output.txt

and then review the contents of output.txt with Notepad.
Otherwise, there may be too much output from Handle, to be
able to scroll back the Command Prompt window and see it all.
If you see your external drive letter, in the output.txt file,
then you can determine which process is doing it.

Paul

 

[Jo-Anne]

Restart the pc using Shutdown/Restart. While it's booting take the drive
out (earlier the better, immediately when it shuts down is best so even
the BIOS doesn't see it). Windows should flush anything required and stop
anything using the drive during the shutdown procedure so data should be
ok. I occasionally have the same problem but usually just selecting the
option to "safely remove" a second time is all that's required.

Thank you, pjp! I did what you said and will hope for the best. I've
occasionally had a brief problem with my memory stick--not using Acronis
True Image--but, as you say, usually trying a second time clears it.

I left the external hard drive connected all night and still couldn't safely
remove it today, so I followed your directions.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

There is a thread here on the subject. In particular, the
accessing of a ".tib" file on the affected disk.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=242607

To analyze, you can get a copy of Process Explorer, click "Explorer.EXE"
then look in the lower pane for "File" entries. You might see the open
file
on the external drive that way. At least, in the previous
thread, that is what the poster was checking.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

There is a second program called "Handle", and it runs from the
Command Prompt. I tried changing directory to where I have
this unpacked, and typed "handle", and it seems to give me
a list of open files on my system. An open file prevents
Safe Removal. Virtually everything open right now, is a file on
my C: partition (and of course, there's little chance of
"Safely Removing" a C: partition).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx

I believe the person who wrote Handle, thinks Process Explorer
is a functional equivalent, but you might like the output of
Handle better.

You can always redirect the output to a file, such as

handle > output.txt

and then review the contents of output.txt with Notepad.
Otherwise, there may be too much output from Handle, to be
able to scroll back the Command Prompt window and see it all.
If you see your external drive letter, in the output.txt file,
then you can determine which process is doing it.

Paul

Thank you, Paul! For now, I did what pjp suggested (this morning I still was
getting the same message as last night). I'll check out the other methods
too, though. I did check processes in Windows Task Manager, and nothing
seemed to be happening. At that point I did a shutdown/restart and removed
the drive during shutdown.

Jo-Anne

 

[philo]

Thank you, Paul! For now, I did what pjp suggested (this morning I still was
getting the same message as last night). I'll check out the other methods
too, though. I did check processes in Windows Task Manager, and nothing
seemed to be happening. At that point I did a shutdown/restart and removed
the drive during shutdown.

Jo-Anne

Not a good idea if you disconnected at a point when the drive was still
mounted...

you should have waited for the machine to have shut off

 

[pjp]

Thank you, pjp! I did what you said and will hope for the best. I've
occasionally had a brief problem with my memory stick--not using Acronis
True Image--but, as you say, usually trying a second time clears it.

I left the external hard drive connected all night and still couldn't
safely remove it today, so I followed your directions.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

Hopefully it's only a mild irritation occasionally. Windows for everyone
always seems to have a few though seldom the same

 

[pjp]

Not a good idea if you disconnected at a point when the drive was still
mounted...

you should have waited for the machine to have shut off

The original advice did say do it after pc had rebooted but preferably
before even the BIOS sees the device (more so to not have it check try to
boot from it, a just in case scenario). It certainly isn't "mounted" at that
time and hopefully Windows cleaned it up properly before it completed
shutdown (which has been my experience when I run across the original
problem stated).

 

[Twayne]

In

Hopefully it's only a mild irritation occasionally. Windows
for everyone always seems to have a few though seldom the
same

Set the drive Properties to not need to be flushed before removal and so the
icon to safely remove ... isn't needed. That turns off the buffers &
wrte-behinds - & t won't appear in safely remove ... anymore. Then: As long
as the light's off, you can turn it off/remove the drive.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Jo-Anne]

In

Set the drive Properties to not need to be flushed before removal and so
the icon to safely remove ... isn't needed. That turns off the buffers &
wrte-behinds - & t won't appear in safely remove ... anymore. Then: As
long as the light's off, you can turn it off/remove the drive.

HTH,

Twayne`

Thank you, Twayne! I'll do that when I return home (I'm away for a couple
weeks).

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Not a good idea if you disconnected at a point when the drive was still
mounted...

you should have waited for the machine to have shut off

Thank you, Philo! I'll do that next time.

Jo-Anne