Safely Remove USB

Roderunner · 30 Oct 2020

Hi Folks, I have a 500 GB WD HDD attached to my Win 10 Laptop. I tried to Safely Remove it 5 times but was still in use. I restarted my PC where I knew I could remove it safely, but I didn't. On restarting with it still connected, I was still unable to remove it safely. Is there some other thing I could try?

steve108 · 30 Oct 2020

Hello George,
Fix 'This device is currently in use' Error and Safely Remove USB Mass Storage - EaseUS don't download any software, just try the instructions posted.

Roderunner · 30 Oct 2020

Hi steve108, I opened Task Manager and looked at process tab, then connected my hdd, nothing changed. I was able to remove safely as I never opened anything on the hdd.
Not tried steps 2 & 3 yet.

cereberus · 30 Oct 2020

There is no need to do safe eject any more.

Windows 10 now lets you pull out USB drives without 'safely removing' them

OldNavyGuy · 30 Oct 2020

cereberus said:

There is no need to do safe eject any more.

Not exactly...

The default is now set to Quick removal.

However, If you've changed it to Better performance, you need to safely remove.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...-storage-media

OldNavyGuy · 30 Oct 2020

Roderunner said:

Hi Folks, I have a 500 GB WD HDD attached to my Win 10 Laptop. I tried to Safely Remove it 5 times but was still in use. I restarted my PC where I knew I could remove it safely, but I didn't. On restarting with it still connected, I was still unable to remove it safely. Is there some other thing I could try?

A couple of things you might try -

1. Check that indexing is turned off for that drive.

2. Turn on Quick removal in the drive properties.

Device Manager > Disk drives > select the drive > right-click > Properties > Policies tab.

cereberus · 30 Oct 2020

OldNavyGuy said:

Not exactly...

The default is now set to Quick removal.

However, If you've changed it to Better performance, you need to safely remove.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...-storage-media

A I said no NEED to do it. I posted link explaining how. If you are going to quote, do not half quote.

OldNavyGuy · 31 Oct 2020

cereberus said:

A I said no NEED to do it. I posted link explaining how. If you are going to quote, do not half quote.

I quoted exactly what you said...which is totally misleading.

Here it is again, in case your memory needs jogging...

Safely Remove USB

There IS a NEED to do it...if the policy is set to Better performance.

No need...if the policy is set to Quick removal.

There are reasons to use one over the other...depending on performance requirements.

Not using Safely Remove Hardware on a drive using Better performance can corrupt a drive.

You could have said that up front...but maybe you didn't know.

Hope this helps.

mngerhold · 31 Oct 2020

Roderunner said:

I was still unable to remove it safely. Is there some other thing I could try?

If the option is there in Explorer, rt-click and select 'Eject'. This works for me when the icon is not present in the System Tray.

cereberus · 31 Oct 2020

OldNavyGuy said:

I quoted exactly what you said...which is totally misleading.

Here it is again, in case your memory needs jogging...

Safely Remove USB

There IS a NEED to do it...if the policy is set to Better performance.

No need...if the policy is set to Quick removal.

There are reasons to use one over the other...depending on performance requirements.

Not using Safely Remove Hardware on a drive using Better performance can corrupt a drive.

You could have said that up front...but maybe you didn't know.

Hope this helps.

Sheesh - you omitted the link I made that explains it.

You are being disengenous.

Bye Bye.