USB Flash Drive Cannot Be Stopped

  • Thread starter Thread starter Six Underground
  • Start date Start date
S

Six Underground

Hi folks.

I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.

When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.

I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
because it is being used by another program.

In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
no difference.

I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
accessed by another program under these conditions.

I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?

In advance, thanks.
 
Six said:
Hi folks.

I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.

When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.

I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
because it is being used by another program.

In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
no difference.

I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
accessed by another program under these conditions.

I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?

In advance, thanks.
Click to expand...

For the poster here, it turned out to be a Windows searchindexer process
that was doing it. You would think a separate process would show up
in Sysinternals "Handle" or the handle portion of "Process Explorer".
But this thread also mentions a svchost being part of the problem.
And a utility intended specifically to help with this (like "Handle",
but only showing "interesting" things), apparently also has a
problem identifying all grabby pieces of software. I don't know
if that implies a privilege problem or not (utility run as normal
user, not able to probe things like that ?).

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ce496/d3cd1b29b567196c?tvc=1#d3cd1b29b567196c

Paul
 
For the poster here, it turned out to be a Windows searchindexer process
that was doing it.
Click to expand...

The indexing service for searching was one of the first things that
came to mind when I encountered this issue. Unless Windows is lying
to me, it's turned off for the flash drive. Maybe I'll try toggling
it while the drive is connected.
You would think a separate process would show up
in Sysinternals "Handle" or the handle portion of "Process Explorer".
But this thread also mentions a svchost being part of the problem.
And a utility intended specifically to help with this (like "Handle",
but only showing "interesting" things), apparently also has a
problem identifying all grabby pieces of software. I don't know
if that implies a privilege problem or not (utility run as normal
user, not able to probe things like that ?).

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ce496/d3cd1b29b567196c?tvc=1#d3cd1b29b567196c
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link; it may provide useful info. I'm going to take
a closer look at Process Explorer too, since I'm not all that familiar
with it. I also downloaded a NirSoft utility that may help.

BTW, restarting the PC doesn't fix the issue, nor does anything of
value appear in the event logs.

In any case, Windows certainly knows that the drive is being accessed.
Now, if I could just persuade her to tell me her secret....

Thanks for responding.

Regards.
 
In
Six said:
Hi folks.

I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.

When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.

I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
because it is being used by another program.

In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
no difference.

I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
accessed by another program under these conditions.

I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?

In advance, thanks.
Click to expand...

I use both USB Safety Remove and Zentimo. Both are made by the same
developer. And they both tell you what the problem is and allows you to
unlock them. They aren't perfect, as there are some conditions you can
be still stuck. But they work far better than the Windows SRH and I
can't ever think of using Windows without one or another.

Safely Remove Hardware better alternative
http://www.safelyremove.com/

Zentimo is an external storage manager
http://zentimo.com/
 
In
J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
In message <[email protected]>, BillW50 <[email protected]>
writes:
[]
I use both USB Safety Remove and Zentimo. Both are made by the same
developer. And they both tell you what the problem is and allows you
to unlock them. They aren't perfect, as there are some conditions
you can be still stuck. But they work far better than the Windows
SRH and I can't ever think of using Windows without one or another.

Safely Remove Hardware better alternative
http://www.safelyremove.com/
$19.90

Zentimo is an external storage manager
http://zentimo.com/
Click to expand...

$29.90
Click to expand...

They sometimes offer specials like 50% off from time to time. That is
how I ended up with lifetime free upgrades for both of them. For example
if you already have USBSR, you can get 50% off of Zentimo.

http://zentimo.com/order.htm?usbsr=1
 
I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
because it is being used by another program.
Click to expand...

As it turns out, this story has a very strange and anticlimactic
ending.

After much time burned on attempts to track down which program was
mysteriously busying the flash drives and coming up with nothing, I
finally gave up and decided that, at least in Windows XP, I'd have to
shut the PC down prior to removing them when the error message
occurred.

Then, one day, I noticed that there was more than one way to use
Safely Remove Hardware.

What I had been doing in the past was double-clicking on the tray
icon, which brings up the full-blown Safely Remove Hardware dialog in
which you can view the device trees and their properties; then
stopping the device from that dialog. Half of the time, it worked..
other times I would get the mysterious error message.

Then one day, through a slip of the wrist, I managed to single-click
the tray icon. Instead of the dialog, this brings up a small list of
the connected USB devices. If you click on one of the devices, Safely
Remove Hardware stops the selected device.

I had never really noticed that list, but I find that if I use it to
stop the drive, it successfully does so 100% of the time. The "device
busy" messages no longer occur at all.

I can't explain the behavior, but it seems to work for me. What the
actual difference is between the two methods, I'll probably never
know.

It seems ironic that the very process that would so busy a drive, is
the very one you might use to stop it, but there it is.. pause and
ponder.

I do note that in Windows 7, this feature is much more well-behaved.
I've never had an issue stopping any flash drive in that operating
system.

Enjoy the day.

6U
 
From: "Six Underground said:
As it turns out, this story has a very strange and anticlimactic
ending.

After much time burned on attempts to track down which program was
mysteriously busying the flash drives and coming up with nothing, I
finally gave up and decided that, at least in Windows XP, I'd have to
shut the PC down prior to removing them when the error message
occurred.

Then, one day, I noticed that there was more than one way to use
Safely Remove Hardware.

What I had been doing in the past was double-clicking on the tray
icon, which brings up the full-blown Safely Remove Hardware dialog in
which you can view the device trees and their properties; then
stopping the device from that dialog. Half of the time, it worked..
other times I would get the mysterious error message.

Then one day, through a slip of the wrist, I managed to single-click
the tray icon. Instead of the dialog, this brings up a small list of
the connected USB devices. If you click on one of the devices, Safely
Remove Hardware stops the selected device.

I had never really noticed that list, but I find that if I use it to
stop the drive, it successfully does so 100% of the time. The "device
busy" messages no longer occur at all.

I can't explain the behavior, but it seems to work for me. What the
actual difference is between the two methods, I'll probably never
know.

It seems ironic that the very process that would so busy a drive, is
the very one you might use to stop it, but there it is.. pause and
ponder.

I do note that in Windows 7, this feature is much more well-behaved.
I've never had an issue stopping any flash drive in that operating
system.

Enjoy the day.

6U
Click to expand...

Thank you for the update.
 
Back
Top