USB Drive - Ties Up Vista - Can't Safely Remove

[garywi]

Hi,

My WD2500 250G USB drive does things with Vista that annoy me:

-the drive starts spooling up/spinning even if I have not made any
read/write requests from it
-while it's spooling up, is slows down Vista severely, causing me to want to
Eject it
-while the drive is spinning, I can't safely eject, error, drive is in use
by another program, even when I have no programs running, or files open.

Can you help?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

In Windows Explorer, right click on the drive and select Properties. On the
firsr tab, General, right at the bottom, ensure Index this drive for faster
searching is NOT checked. If it is, each time you connect it, Windows will
check to see which files have changed, been added, deleted etc.

 

[garywi]

Hi, Thanks. On the general tab for this drive, there is no check box for
indexing. I checked all the tabs, there is no box. The only button on the
general tab is for degragmenting.

?

 

[Rob]

Hi, Thanks. On the general tab for this drive, there is no check box for
indexing. I checked all the tabs, there is no box. The only button on the
general tab is for degragmenting.

?

--
Thanks

In Windows Explorer, right click on the drive and select Properties. On the
firsr tab, General, right at the bottom, ensure Index this drive for faster
searching is NOT checked. If it is, each time you connect it, Windows will
check to see which files have changed, been added, deleted etc.

Run task manager, goto performance, click resource monitor, in there choose disk, and sort by
highest->lowest read/write and find out which application is doing all the reading and/or
writing to ur usb drive. Once you know the application, u can perhaps disable it, or adjust its
settings depending on what it is.

--
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MS ForceFeedBack 2 Joystick

 

[Andrew Wong]

Try going to the 'Device Manager' (right click on my computer -> properties
-> Device manager) and underr disk drives find your Western Digital drive (WD
2500... External USB Device).
Open up the properties (double click or right click) and goto the 'policies'
tab. Select the top one 'optimise for quick removal' and you should be able
to just disconnect the drive without safe removal (as it says in the
description).

Hope this helps

 

[garywi]

Thanks Everyone. I made the change to 'optimise for quick removal' . Can I
really unplug the USB cable while the drive is spinning?

Also, as a test, I still go in to try to safely remove hardware, or Eject
the drive and Vista still says the drive is in use, when the drive is
spinning or when not spinning. Its always in use according to vista.

 

[Wandering]

Thanks Everyone. I made the change to 'optimise for quick removal' . Can
I
really unplug the USB cable while the drive is spinning?

Also, as a test, I still go in to try to safely remove hardware, or Eject
the drive and Vista still says the drive is in use, when the drive is
spinning or when not spinning. Its always in use according to vista.

Yes you can. USB drives can be hot swapped, but if Vista is reporting it in
use, you really do need to run down what is using it before unplugging.
Otherwise you could damage the drive, at least what is written on it. You
could go to Device Manager, and adjust it's properties to be "quickly
removable." But if a program is holding it open you need to stop that. I
would bet it's Windows Media Player. It seems to want to grab everything you
plug into the machine. Make sure it is shut down in Process Manager.
Good luck.

 

[garywi]

Hi, I went into Services and disabled every service with Windows Media Player
in the description. Vista will still not let me eject the drive. What else
has my USB drive hostage?

?

 

[Wandering]

Yes you can. USB drives can be hot swapped, but if Vista is reporting it
in use, you really do need to run down what is using it before unplugging.
Otherwise you could damage the drive, at least what is written on it. You
could go to Device Manager, and adjust it's properties to be "quickly
removable." But if a program is holding it open you need to stop that. I
would bet it's Windows Media Player. It seems to want to grab everything
you plug into the machine. Make sure it is shut down in Process Manager.
Good luck.

Understand that I am only guessing based on some of my own experiences. Are
you running any disk burning software like Nero and some others, or any
other media player? Often they leave part of them behind for a quick start,
Some seem to want to grab any removable device to sync. Are you using Sync
Manager? Is there U3 Software on the drive, and does it install a second U3
Device?

You can try shutting down one thing at a time till either Windows breaks or
your can remove the drive. Also, remember to use the show all processes for
all users button, or you aren't seeing the half of what is running on your
machine.

Good luck.