USB safely remove hardware problem

[Dr. Dos]

I have four usb hdds hung off my computer via an externally
powered hub. Two drives are self-powered WD Passports and
two are externally powered Maxtors.
The "safely remove hardware" routine returns the error message:
"The device cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping it later."
This is for whichever usb hdd I select.
I can stop other devices such as thumb drive, cd/dvd drive,
printer, headset. Any idea of why hdds won't stop or how how
to stop them?
WinXP Pro SP2

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

"Dr. Dos" <DrDos@nospam.no> wrote in message
news:%23EuTjpzHIHA.3956@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I have four usb hdds hung off my computer via an externally powered hub.
>Two drives are self-powered WD Passports and two are externally powered
>Maxtors.
> The "safely remove hardware" routine returns the error message:
> "The device cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping it later."
> This is for whichever usb hdd I select.
> I can stop other devices such as thumb drive, cd/dvd drive, printer,
> headset. Any idea of why hdds won't stop or how how to stop them?
> WinXP Pro SP2

One of your processes is accessing files on the drives.

I usually manage to sort this out by using Process Explorer
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx)
to find which process has a handle to files on the drives and kill it. More
often than not it's explorer.exe.

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Dr. Dos]

Ed Metcalfe wrote:
> "Dr. Dos" <DrDos@nospam.no> wrote in message
> news:%23EuTjpzHIHA.3956@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> I have four usb hdds hung off my computer via an externally powered hub.
>> Two drives are self-powered WD Passports and two are externally powered
>> Maxtors.
>> The "safely remove hardware" routine returns the error message:
>> "The device cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping it later."
>> This is for whichever usb hdd I select.
>> I can stop other devices such as thumb drive, cd/dvd drive, printer,
>> headset. Any idea of why hdds won't stop or how how to stop them?
>> WinXP Pro SP2
>
> One of your processes is accessing files on the drives.
>
> I usually manage to sort this out by using Process Explorer
> (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx)
> to find which process has a handle to files on the drives and kill it. More
> often than not it's explorer.exe.
>
> Ed Metcalfe.
>
>
Thank you.
Very handy that Windows Process Explorer. I determined that
Norton Utilities NProtect (also very handy) had domain over
these outrigger hdds. Since the usb hang-on drives are all
duplicative backups and hardly ever have anything manually
deleted, NProtect serves no purpose. I disabled NProtect on
them, still protecting the main C drive. Now I can detach a
portable drive without worry or shutting down.