XP won't release flash drive

[RanMan]

Up until recently I was able to plug my flash drive into a usb port, copy
from/to, when done, select the green arrow in the task bar and follow the
steps to safely remove hardware, now xp gives me a message indicating the
device is being used by another application/process and can not be unplugged
right now.

I don't want to damage anything so for now, I have to reboot, wait until the
light goes out on the flash drive and remove it during the reboot process.

My usb root hub appears ok in the device manager and I don't have any
program running that would be using the flash drive when I attempt to unplug
it.

Any suggestions?

 

[Elmo]

Up until recently I was able to plug my flash drive into a usb port, copy
from/to, when done, select the green arrow in the task bar and follow the
steps to safely remove hardware, now xp gives me a message indicating the
device is being used by another application/process and can not be unplugged
right now.

I don't want to damage anything so for now, I have to reboot, wait until the
light goes out on the flash drive and remove it during the reboot process.

My usb root hub appears ok in the device manager and I don't have any
program running that would be using the flash drive when I attempt to unplug
it.

Any suggestions?

When I get that message, it's because I didn't close the Explorer
window. But you might find a reference to that error here:

USB Help sites:
http://www.usbman.com/WinME USB Guide.htm

General USB troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310575

Troubleshooting for USB drives
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html