External HD ALWAYS reports that it is in use when ejecting device

hsehestedt · 30 Mar 2021

I have a WD 4TB Elements HD (2.5" USB 3 device). I use this to backup my laptop computer.

I'm finding that when I try to perform a clean eject of this drive it ALWAYS reports that the drive is in use and NEVER gives the okay to eject the drive.

What's odd about this is that I don't have this problem with any other devices. I use a lot of thumb drives and SSDs and they always allow an eject operation with no difficulties.

My solution is to simply no longer even bother trying to cleanly eject the drive - so long as I'm not actively doing anything with it, I simply yank out the USB cable, but that doesn't give me the warm fuzzies.

Anyone else see this issue and possibly have a solution?

This on Win 10 20H2.

External HD ALWAYS reports that it is in use when ejecting device-image1.jpg

I should note that I have closed every single program and even disabled antivirus scanning to see if it might be responsible. No luck.

NMI · 30 Mar 2021

There's a bunch of things to try here:

Problem ejecting USB Mass Storage Device, This device is currently in use

Paul Black · 30 Mar 2021

Hello @hsehestedt,

I have a WD 3TB Elements that I use for storage. I do find that if I have been performing a lot of copies, moves, deletions etc, that it will take a minute or two of keep trying to eject it before I actually get the message that it is safe to eject.

I don't know if this helps you any!

f14tomcat · 30 Mar 2021

Pop this little utility on. With a right-click on the drive (in My PC) it will show what has it locked and allow termination. Likely to be Explorer.

LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes

There's another small utility at the bottom for helping with this exact issue.

I've noticed this problem myself with External HDDs via USB 3.0. It seems to have gotten worse over the past 2 months or so. I can't narrow it down, and it doesn't always happen.

Hope this helps, or points to something.

RolandJS · 30 Mar 2021

"...Likely to be Explorer" Sometimes I will point explorer to my C partition and away from any attached device[s], that often (but not always) clears the "in use error".

dalchina · 30 Mar 2021

I find a utility such as USB Safely Remove better in dealing with this- it can show what's locking the device and give an option to eject it. (Not free).

Possible other options:
USB Safely Remove Alternatives and Similar Software | AlternativeTo

f14tomcat · 30 Mar 2021

dalchina said:

I find a utility such as USB Safely Remove better in dealing with this- it can show what's locking the device and give an option to eject it. (Not free).

Possible other options:
USB Safely Remove Alternatives and Similar Software | AlternativeTo

That was the other I referred to in the link in post.

External HD ALWAYS reports that it is in use when ejecting device-image.png

hsehestedt · 30 Mar 2021

Thanks! I'll give those utils a try.

f14tomcat · 30 Mar 2021

hsehestedt said:

Thanks! I'll give those utils a try.

hsehestedt · 31 Mar 2021

I tried the USB Safely Remove program and it works perfectly.

Thanks for the suggestion!