Unable to "safely remove" external hard drive

[SmarSquid]

I'm using a Western Digital 250 GB external USB hard drive on an XP SP-2 Pro
system. The drive is recognized by Windows when connected, but after
searching and copying files to the disk, when I go through the two-step
"safely remove hardware" process (taskbar icon), I often get a Windows alert
that "the device cannot be disconnected right now - try again later", or
something to that effect.

If I log off and back on, I am able to successfully remove the device. Ditto
if I terminate explorer.exe and then relaunch it (Windows Task Manager).

To complicate matters further, the problem seems intermittent. I cannot
duplicate it on command.

Any ideas on this?

 

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

I have been plagued by the same problem for quite some time.

While I am only 2 days into a possible fix evaluation, I think I know what
is causing my problems.

My "PATH" has references to the external Hard Drive.

Here is a Bat file I am using to remove the references. "SYS_OFF.Bat"
------------------------------------
REM SEPTEMBER 23, 2004
Echo on

ECHO ERRORLEVEL = %ERRORLEVEL%

pathman /rs "P:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK 07-2002\Bin\." /rs "P:\Program
Files\Microsoft SDK 07-2002\Bin\WinNT\." /rs "P:\Program Files\Microsoft
Visual Studio\VC98\bin" /rs "P:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK 07-2002\Bin\."
/rs "P:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK 07-2002\Bin\WinNT\." /rs "P:\Program
Files\Microsoft SDK 07-2002\Bin\WinNT\." /rs
"E:\WINDOWS;E:\WINDOWS\COMMAND"

ECHO ERRORLEVEL = %ERRORLEVEL%

set

Pause Hit A Key When Done

------------------------------------

I have a similar one for inserting the External Hard Drive references back
in.

"Pathman" is from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools.

A manual test can be done by modifying "PATH" using

Start / Settings / Control Panel / System / Advanced / Environment Variables

I hope that I have shown you a "PATH" that helps you.

++++++++++++++++++++++++
If the "safe hardware removal" Icon disappears, built a shortcut with the
following:

%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
SW_SHOW

++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Guest]

Try removing the drivers from device manager (whilst the drivesplugged in)
and reinstall it from scratch (either just plug it back in and let XP do it's
thing, or use the manufacturers utils).

You could also dissable caching for the drive though dev man - but this will
slow it down

hope it helps