What process is using my drive?

[Rich Pasco]

I have a portable hard disk attached to my my WinXP computer (Firewire
interface, if it makes a difference). If I click on the "Safely remove
hardware" icon, I get a notice telling me the Ddevice 'Generic volumne'
cannot be stopped right now. Please try stopping the device again later."

If I go into Explorer and try to Format the drive I get a notice telling
me that some application is using the disk, please quit any utilities
and try again later.

There are *NO* applications open. Nada. But of course there are dozens
of "tasks" in Task Manager. How can I find out which of them is using
my portable disk, so I can dismount or format it?

- Rich

 

[BILL]

If you have any antivirus, anti spam, or any similar programs running stop
them temporarily.
If you now can remove the drive then you need to place the drive on the
exceptions list.
It may be called different things but all such programs have something like
exceptions.

You can also use msconfig to do a 'Diagnostic Startup'. This starts the
system with only
basic devices and services.
Bill Wilkie
Remove numbers to reply.

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rich Pasco]

Thanks, Bill.

I did turn off Norton Antivirus but I still can't dismount the drive.
Seems to me if Windows says "you can't remove the drive because some
process is using it" then Windows should be able to tell mw which
process without me having to guess.

- Rich

 

[Rich Pasco]

P.S. I worked around my immediate problem as follows:

1) Shut down Windows (and turn off computer)
2) Physically disconnect drive
3) Reboot computer and Windows

Still, I would rather not have to do that. If windows tells me "some
process" is using my drive, I should be able to ask it "which process?"
without having to guess. Wouldn't that seem reasonable?

- Rich

 

[Ron Martell]

I have a portable hard disk attached to my my WinXP computer (Firewire
interface, if it makes a difference). If I click on the "Safely remove
hardware" icon, I get a notice telling me the Ddevice 'Generic volumne'
cannot be stopped right now. Please try stopping the device again later."

If I go into Explorer and try to Format the drive I get a notice telling
me that some application is using the disk, please quit any utilities
and try again later.

There are *NO* applications open. Nada. But of course there are dozens
of "tasks" in Task Manager. How can I find out which of them is using
my portable disk, so I can dismount or format it?

- Rich

There are a number of possible culprits, including spyware. Norton
Antivirus does not stop spyware. You need a specific antispyware
program. You can download a free 14 day fully functional trial
version of Webroot's Spysweeper by going to
http://www,webroot.com/download (which is an error page) and clicking
on the Spysweeper trial download link on the right side.

Another possible culprit would be the Indexing service in Windows XP,
which you can disable by using Start - Run - SERVICES.MSC

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Uwe Sieber]

I have a portable hard disk attached to my my WinXP computer (Firewire
interface, if it makes a difference). If I click on the "Safely remove
hardware" icon, I get a notice telling me the Ddevice 'Generic volumne'
cannot be stopped right now. Please try stopping the device again later."

With Sysinternals ProcessExplorer you can search for open
handles:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

But you have to search for the DOS device name, not for the
drive letter. My command line tool RemoveDrive shows it:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/removedrive.zip

It look so:

-----------------------
C:\>RemoveDrive.exe u:

RemoveDrive V0.6 - removes removable drives
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de
Removing Drive U:\ (Corsair Flash Voyager USB Device)
failed
check for open files on U:\ or \Device\Harddisk3\DP(1)0-0+8f
-----------------------

In this case it would be enough to search for 'disk3' in the
ProcessExplorer (Find -> Find Handle).


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[Rich Pasco]

Uwe,

Thank you for RemoveDrive; it is nice, but it still doesn't say which
process is using my drive. For example, it says:

C:\>RemoveDrive.exe F:
RemoveDrive V0.6 - removes removable drives
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de
Removing Drive F:\ (Memorex TD CLASSIC 003B USB Device)
failed
check for open files on F:\ or \Device\Harddisk2\DP(1)0-0+b
Press any key to close
C:\>

In this case, I had another command prompt window open with its
current drive set to F:. I tried again after closing that window:

C:\>RemoveDrive.exe F:
RemoveDrive V0.6 - removes removable drives
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de
Removing Drive F:\ (Memorex TD CLASSIC 003B USB Device)
success
Press any key to close
C:\>

So what would be nice would be if RemoveDrive could give a message
more like:

Failed; process CMD.EXE has files open on F:

Thanks,

- Rich

 

[Plato]

Thank you for RemoveDrive; it is nice, but it still doesn't say which
process is using my drive. For example, it says:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/
http://www.castlecops.com/StartupList.html
http://www.jasonn.com/turning_off_unnecessary_services_on_windows_xp

 

[Uwe Sieber]

RemoveDrive V0.6 - removes removable drives
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de
Removing Drive F:\ (Memorex TD CLASSIC 003B USB Device)
failed
check for open files on F:\ or \Device\Harddisk2\DP(1)0-0+b
Press any key to close
C:\>

Thank you for RemoveDrive; it is nice, but it still doesn't say which
process is using my drive.

That wasn't the plan. It shows the DOS device name of the
device to remove (\Device\Harddisk2\DP(1)0-0+b).
This one you can enter in the 'Find handle' function
of Sysinternals ProcessExplorer. Usually it's enough
to take a characteristic part like 'disk2'.

Of course I would like to add these 'Find handle' function
to my tool. In fact I did it but there is an unsolved problem
that makes it freeze when it checks a certain type of handle.

The handle check is activated by the -h switch.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/removedrive07.zip


Greetings from Germany

Uwe



For example, it says: