Questions tagged [safely-remove-hardware]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
75 votes
12 answers
40k views

How to safely remove a device blocked by the System process with a handle on \$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Txf

I have an external HDD which I would like to "safely remove". Unfortunately, my system (Windows 7 x64) complains that "the device is currently in use". Using Process Explorer I discovered which ...
Heinzi's user avatar
  • 3,814
45 votes
11 answers
59k views

External HDD is always in use when trying to safely remove

I have a WD 1TB Elements external hard drive, and every time I use the Windows 7 "safely remove" feature, it gives me a dialog telling that a process is using the disk. Using Sysinternals Process ...
MarioDS's user avatar
  • 1,582
37 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is time a substitute for Safely Remove Hardware?

In Windows 7, before unplugging an external hard disk or flash drive, you are ideally supposed to use the Safely Remove Hardware option to make sure there aren't any writes still pending. Suppose it ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,597
31 votes
5 answers
69k views

How do I get Windows to re-attach a USB device without having to plug it in again?

After I use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' notification area widget, how do I get Windows to re-attach a USB device (i.e. a USB drive) without having to unplug and plug it in again?
Kev's user avatar
  • 2,249
18 votes
3 answers
10k views

Why is Safely Remove Hardware so slow?

I have never used a computer where pressing the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media"-button has resulted in an immediate response. Most other functions responds almost immediate, whereas it almost ...
Stewie Griffin's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
28k views

How can I remove the option to eject internal SATA drives from the Windows 8 tray icon?

The Safely Remove Hardware icon in Windows 8 (and 8.1) offers the ability to eject my internal SATA drives, including the boot drive (see example): I don't see myself ever needing this - especially ...
Anton's user avatar
  • 153
14 votes
2 answers
1k views

Does Windows flush drive caches on standby?

Does Windows flush the drive caches when entering standby mode? It seems like an obvious thing to do and I for one would design it like that if I were on the Windows team, but over the years, I have ...
Synetech's user avatar
  • 68.8k
12 votes
5 answers
35k views

How can I safely remove my USB hard drive in Fedora 17?

In Fedora 17, when I want to plug my USB hard disk out, I can only unmount it. But the problem is that the hard drive won't be powered off so that I can plug it out. In some other distros like ...
Mehrdad's user avatar
  • 283
9 votes
5 answers
26k views

"Safely Remove Hardware" icon in Windows 8

In Windows 8 the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon sits permanently in the System Tray even though no external drive is plugged into the computer. If you click on that icon the only clickable option is "...
groucho43's user avatar
  • 149
7 votes
1 answer
556 views

Is There A Need To Safely Remove Device If "Quick Removal" Is Enabled?

i have been always ejecting devices from USB prior to removing them from computer and then i thought that if i have "Quick Removal" set, would i still need to eject? What could be the worst case if ...
Boris_yo's user avatar
  • 5,864
6 votes
2 answers
6k views

Turn off drive after "Safely Remove"? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: USB hard drive doesn't graceful power off after eject on Windows 7 When you click "Safely Remove Hardware" to disconnect an external hard drive, Windows XP flushes the ...
user541686's user avatar
  • 23.9k
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Windows 7: Safely Remove Hardware keyboard shortcut not working

A popular keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware dialog is to use the destination as: Rundll32.exe Shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll The dialog that is displayed when this ...
Ashwin Nanjappa's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
29k views

Safe to manually spin down hard drive with hdparm?

I have a laptop with a ssd for primary OS drive, and a large Spinning disk for storage. I currently have an alias I use for manually spinning down the drive when I'm not using it (after umount of ...
Shane's user avatar
  • 183
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

Safely Ejecting a Drive - I almost never find any program using the device. Why doesn't Windows say which programs are using the device?

I've read "just pull it out anyway", and I've read "you'll be sorry". Shouldn't Windows be able to tell me which programs are using the device, and ask me if I want to close those ...
Jonathon Neville's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
8k views

Driver "Policies" Tab not showing in Windows

I have a Marvell driver that in earlier versions of Windows showed a "Policies" tab in the Properties of it in the Device Manager, but not anymore in Windows 8/8.1. It is something like this: While ...
DarkGhostHunter's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
476 views

I can't remove the usb flash-drive safely after succesfully backing up data with acronis true image

Here's the thing, few weeks ago I had formated my usb flash-drive (slowly) using NTFS and I started backing up data very often with acronis true image 14 succesfully into this flash-drive. After the ...
BPL's user avatar
  • 93
3 votes
3 answers
5k views

Can't safely eject external hard drive on Windows 10. How to Solve it?

Whenever I am trying to eject my external hard drive I am getting "Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device" alert and it is not allowing me to eject the device safely. (System : Windows 10 ...
Mir Rahed Uddin's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
4k views

How to eject multiple devices simultaneously?

Is there a way to eject/safely remove multiple drives (ie flash drives) at once on Windows? That is, without having to click on each one and then clicking "eject"? Could this be done with a batch file?...
yiwei's user avatar
  • 195
3 votes
3 answers
12k views

Windows 7 not detecting external hard drive but Ubuntu is detecting. Why?

I have a 500 GB Toshiba external hard drive. Since yesterday Windows 7 stopped detecting it, however I do see it listed on the "Safely remove hardware and eject media" icon on the taskbar. Then I ...
unlimit's user avatar
  • 141
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to remove my mouse from the "Safely Remove Hardware"

All of a sudden my mouse appeared in the "Safely Remove Hardware" list after 6 years of usage. I'm wondering why did this behavior suddenly happen overnight. There was no update to the ...
tosh's user avatar
  • 123
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Will unplugging a USB key without safely removing it cause problems? [duplicate]

I often pull out the USB stick without having to first eject USB, but so far I have not had any problems. Would this lead to problems in the future?
BrianTakan's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
138 views

Removing a spare HDD from Windows XP causes User Profile to reset

I have 5 internal HDD's installed; HDD 1 IDE partitioned into C (OS) [Pri], I [Logic] HDD 2 IDE partitioned into F (Programs) Pri, G (Games) [Logic] HDD 3 SATA partition H (Empty) [Pri] HDD 4 SATA ...
Shawn Jones's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
457 views

How to recover data after "Safely remove drive" applied on ext4 drive under Windows?

The story I have an external harddisk that has been formatted for use with Linux. Unfortunately I inserted this disk in a Windows computer. Immediately after that it became corrupted. I have used ...
Ballet_Cage's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
44 views

eSATA PCIe card, HotSwap, and errors

I've been using HotSwap (http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm) to remove HDDs connected to an eSATA PCIe card. These drives are for backups. The problem is that every time I use HotSwap to eject ...
TurboCharge's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to have Safe Remove icon in the system tray in Windows 10?

In my installation there is no Safe Remove icon in the system tray. It is not hidden, simply there is no such icon. (I checked in "Notifications & actions" and there is no such icon in the list, ...
g.pickardou's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
1k views

Prevent device from being ejected (Windows 10 Pro)

I have a fixed device (5.25 device), a smartcard reader, that is ejectable and appears in "safe removal". The problem is that if I misclick this smartcard reader while is about to eject a USB memory, ...
sebastian nielsen's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
3k views

Windows 7: Keyboard shortcut for Safely Remove Hardware dialog

A popular keyboard shortcut to invoke the Safely Remove Hardware dialog is to use the destination as: Rundll32.exe Shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll The dialog that is displayed when this ...
Ashwin Nanjappa's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
153 views

Recorded mp3 files lost after sd card was removed while laptop was sleeping

I took the sd card from the laptop, while it was in sleep mode. Put it (sd card) into Zoom H2n audio recorder. Recorded some stuff using guitar. Took sd card from audio recorder and put it back into ...
Qeeet's user avatar
  • 427
1 vote
2 answers
140 views

Is it required to safely remove a device [duplicate]

I have an external hard drive. While I am not reading or writing any data to the hard drive can I directly unplug the device? Will this practice damage the hard drive? If any data is corrupted due to ...
NewUser's user avatar
  • 214
1 vote
5 answers
4k views

Safe removal of USB mass storage device not possible

I have a 1TB external hard drive. Whenever I try to safely remove it, it says that the device is still in use. I looked through all my processes and I can't find anything using the device. It's ...
de1337ed's user avatar
  • 177
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

Adding The Safety Remove Hardware Option To The Desktop Right-Click Contextual Menu?

Is it possible to add The Safety Remove Hardware Option to the Windows desktop right-click contextual menu to aid in the removal of usb devices ?
Simon's user avatar
  • 4,497
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

What is the purpose of these films on CPU/GPU chips?

For quite a while I was wondering what is the purpose of a couple of solid films partially covering chips on my CPU/GPU (they are attached so they are between the cooler and the chips). For better ...
The Dreams Wind's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
117 views

How do i detach this fan from the heatsink?

I have no idea of what this method of attaching the fan is called, so I have no way of looking it up. I tried to, but I dont know what to look for, so hopefully, someone can tell me how to do it by ...
joao pedro's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

not to safely remove non-spinning drives will damage the hardware?

I know that if we disconnect a spinning drive without safe remove, the computer may be writing some data on it and it's spinning, so it may get damaged. But is it necessary to safely remove a flash ...
living being's user avatar
  • 1,076
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Mid-2013 SanDisk Cruzer Fit driver to fix option to Safely Remove Hardware

The mid-2013 SanDisk flash drives report back as fixed or permanently-installed drives rather than removable drives. Windows 7 uses that flag to determine whether or not to list a drive in the Safely ...
chirality's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Stop Windows asking me to eject ATA device [duplicate]

Recently reinstalled windows and have AHCI enabled (perhaps it has something to do with AHCI mode). Basically, I have the option now to eject my hard drives in the "Safely remove hardware and eject ...
Jonathan's user avatar
  • 381
1 vote
0 answers
546 views

Can't "Safely Remove Hardware And Eject Media" using remote desktop as a regular user

I have a remote computer (Windows 7 Pro) that I sometimes need to connect to in order to safely remove and eject a DOK. When using that remoter computer locally (physically, not through remote desktop)...
EagleX's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
73 views

No associated handles but can't disconnected device

Hullo everyone, For some reason my laptop refuses to give up my external SSD. It's been an ongoing issue, and there's even been data loss from it before I realised what was going on it. When I try ...
calben's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
1 answer
61 views

Files opened by some applications do not affect usb Safe Removal

I have noticed that when files are open by certain applications the safe removal of their source usb drive is not prevented (in contrast with other programs that will block the safe removal while the ...
AndroidX's user avatar
  • 217
1 vote
1 answer
246 views

Schedule USB Eject After File Transfer

There are times I want to schedule a USB to eject once files finish transferring, e.g. when I don't want to stay around to wait for the transfer and the person who needs the USB doesn't have access to ...
Spedwards's user avatar
  • 292
1 vote
3 answers
3k views

Eject USB storage on Windows 8.1: 2 different brand drives appear as sub-options under same option

I have a HGST Touro 500Gb USB3 drive and a Samsung 1Tb USB3 drive attached to my Windows 8.1 Pro machine and a few other drives as well. When I go to safely disconnect one of these drives, in the ...
therobyouknow's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
550 views

How do i remove Glary Utilities and Registry repair?

I'm trying to free up some disk space. How do i remove Glary Utilities and Registry repair? Do i simply remove it the normal way via control panel/uninstall ? Just want to make sure there's no ...
user315224's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
63 views

My mp3player freezes when I eject it

When I eject(or safely remove) or unplug my mp3player from the USB, the screen freezes and an "ok to disconnect" message remains on its screen. Then I have to reset my mp3player. However when I ...
Sajad Rastegar's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
239 views

Set an external HDD to shut down mode

I use udisks --detach /dev/sdb for safely remove my hard disk. This command works like safely remove menu in nautilus when you right click on an external HDD. The problem is, after 2 sec hard drive ...
soroosh's user avatar
  • 131
1 vote
0 answers
168 views

How can I find out who's trying to eject my disk?

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T520 running Windows 7 Enterprise. It has an internal SSD (C:) and a second hard drive (D:) installed in place of the DVD drive. At various times throughout the day, a window ...
Graeme Perrow's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
3k views

How to fix damaged NTFS partition?

I have an external HDD with one NTFS partition. I wanted to transfer some files between PCs, so I have copied some files from Debian PC to the drive. After then as usual I have chosen safety remove ...
Krisztián's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
110 views

How to know the disk name instead of "Eject device" on the "Safely Remove" context menu on the notification area?

If the drive has partitions that Windows can recognise, the menu displays the drive label and letter. But for disks that do not have such partitions, it just shows "Eject Device" like the ...
Damn Vegetables's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
73 views

Windows 10: Is it safe to move SD card from a "standby Linux" to Windows 10?

Since a month, I regularly switch an SD card between a computer with Windows 10 and a laptop with Linux Mint / Windows 10. I do not digitally "remove the card", I just take it out. The files ...
questionto42's user avatar
  • 2,267
0 votes
1 answer
258 views

Issue Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device (which program is using it?)

Nothing angers me more than this message: It's especially annoying when I don't have any programs open, and it's probably some leftover process from something I had open earlier that's still ...
EllipticalInitial's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
129 views

Don want to use safe remove EX HDD in MAC OS...

I am using iMac with OS 10.6.8. Every time when I eject my External HDD I have to eject from finder. I want to use like Plug n Play just like in windows no need to give safe remove. If there is any ...
Dragonborn's user avatar