Problems dismounting USB drives

[OttoC]

Very recently, my computer (Win 7 Home 64-bit) has been telling me that the device is in use whenever I try to eject a thumb drive or an external hard drive. Bringing up Task Manager show no open applications whenever this happens and I cannot pin it down to the many Processes or Services running. A web search has not turned up an answer.
 
Any ideas? I have to go to MyComputer, pick the drive, right-click, choose Eject, then tell it to Continue hoping that the warning that data could be lost does not come true. The icon on the right hand side of the task bar is useless.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Did you reboot the computer?

 

[OttoC]

Did you reboot the computer?

 
Many times.

 

[Couperin47]

OK this is taking stabs in the dark...
 
1. If this is happening with all usb connected drives, not just one, then we can rule out any software on the usb drive like encryption or backup, or sync software (unless you have some such common software you have installed on all such drives...)
 
2. The most common offending software is AV or Malware detection software that's been instructed to scan such drives...and ain't letting go.  Check options on all such software, stop such scans, reboot and see if that solves the issue.
 
3. Do you use any of the endless replacements/improvements on MS Explorer (not the browser, the file manager), virtually all techies do...some of these will autolog on such drives as detected and in some cases this is seen as continuing access to the drive, hence the OS stupidly thinks something on the drive is "in use". If you use any of these, close them and see if that helps.

 

[OttoC]

OK this is taking stabs in the dark...
 
1. If this is happening with all usb connected drives, not just one, then we can rule out any software on the usb drive like encryption or backup, or sync software (unless you have some such common software you have installed on all such drives...)
 
2. The most common offending software is AV or Malware detection software that's been instructed to scan such drives...and ain't letting go.  Check options on all such software, stop such scans, reboot and see if that solves the issue.
 
3. Do you use any of the endless replacements/improvements on MS Explorer (not the browser, the file manager), virtually all techies do...some of these will autolog on such drives as detected and in some cases this is seen as continuing access to the drive, hence the OS stupidly thinks something on the drive is "in use". If you use any of these, close them and see if that helps.

 
1. It is any USB drive, including USB 2 and USB 3 (for which I have a separate card added).
 
2. I've always used Microsoft's security system on this box. So if they changed something recently in the way they behave I would expect to find other people having the same problem.
 
3. I haven't added any extras to the file manager. However, I recently began using Adobe's Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, Bridge, and Lightroom and I am wondering if the images on my drives are getting tied up with CC. I have been going through image files on external hard drives with Bridge but not the thumb drives. I logged out of CC but still had the problem and I also did not see any reports of this problem in Adobe forums. I may try contacting their tech support. It is annoying because I have so many external drives to handle years of photographic images and their back-up.
 
Thanks.

 

[LoweTek]

Are you able to shut down? Just shut down the PC and you can remove the drive.

 

[OttoC]

Are you able to shut down? Just shut down the PC and you can remove the drive.

 
Yes, but that is a PITA. I have ten external drives I am trying to inventory with the thought of getting all the needed data off external drives with plug-in power supplies onto pocket-sized USB3 drives.

 

[OttoC]

Well, a different web search turned up something on a MS tech site called ProcessExplorer that is supposed to tell you what process(es) are involved with various things, so that might help me pin down the problem. And if that doesn't solve things, there is something called USB Safely Remove that I can install as a work-around. I'm far from the first person this has happened to but there is no clear-cut answer as to why it happens.

 

[Couperin47]

OK this is a know issue, been there since Vista...there are several approaches taken to the ongoing issue which we can assume Microsoft has no intention of actually fixing:
 
1. Use the Quick removal option that disables write cache buffer on the USB drive. This eliminates the need for the safe removal dialog (which is doing 2 things basically: making sure the cache has flushed to the drive and checking for open handles). Control panel: Device manager: Disk drives: Policies tab on the drive in question. In almost all cases, esp with solid state thumb drives (as opposed to a mechanical hard drive) real world tests seem to show the cache has little effect..see http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/04/write-caching-for-usb-devices-in-windows-just-dont-bother/.
 
2. Unlocker is a freeware utility that when invoked shows what handles are still connected and offers to kill them. It's been around for years, the author has become well, a bit greedy.. get the latest versions here: http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html  READ THE FIRST REVIEW... THE INSTALLER NOW IS SNEAKY IN TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO INSTALLING CRAPWARE. Otherwise the utility itself is useful and benign.
 
3. many report the following solution:
 
Launch Task Manager,
select FolderSizeSvc.exe ,
End Process
DONE
Now go eject your USB -no fuss 2 clicks

 

[OttoC]

OK this is a know issue, been there since Vista...there are several approaches taken to the ongoing issue which we can assume Microsoft has no intention of actually fixing:
 
1. Use the Quick removal option that disables write cache buffer on the USB drive. This eliminates the need for the safe removal dialog (which is doing 2 things basically: making sure the cache has flushed to the drive and checking for open handles). Control panel: Device manager: Disk drives: Policies tab on the drive in question. In almost all cases, esp with solid state thumb drives (as opposed to a mechanical hard drive) real world tests seem to show the cache has little effect..see http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/04/write-caching-for-usb-devices-in-windows-just-dont-bother/....

 
So I followed the instructions for Policy Tab when I just used a thumb drive, only to find that it was already set to Quick Removal. How it suddenly got set there, I have not a clue, but that apparently was why the Eject icon on the task bar didn't work. I reset it to back To Better Performance and things now work as they once did.
 
Weird. My thanks to all for the help.

 

[Couperin47]

 
So I followed the instructions for Policy Tab when I just used a thumb drive, only to find that it was already set to Quick Removal. How it suddenly got set there, I have not a clue, but that apparently was why the Eject icon on the task bar didn't work. I reset it to back To Better Performance and things now work as they once did.
 
Weird. My thanks to all for the help.

 
It's Windows...some of it always has been and always will be weird... how and why my Quicklaunch taskbar randomly reorganizes itself every now and then...it did it in XP, it does it in 7, I'm sure it will if I'm every forced into 8 ... the only hope is that if they ever really remove my ability to create the Quicklaunch, whatever add-on gives me the option will probably be the first time the code has ever been stable.