USB Flash Drive Cannot Be Stopped

Six Underground · External Since: Mar 14, 2012 Posts: 3

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Paul · External Since: Dec 06, 2006 Posts: 538

Six Underground wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.
>
> When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
> and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.
>
> I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
> of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
> because it is being used by another program.
>
> In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
> Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
> don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
> have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
> no difference.
>
> I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
> accessed by another program under these conditions.
>
> I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
> unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
> reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?
>
> In advance, thanks.

For the poster here, it turned out to be a Windows searchindexer process
that was doing it. You would think a separate process would show up
in Sysinternals "Handle" or the handle portion of "Process Explorer".
But this thread also mentions a svchost being part of the problem.
And a utility intended specifically to help with this (like "Handle",
but only showing "interesting" things), apparently also has a
problem identifying all grabby pieces of software. I don't know
if that implies a privilege problem or not (utility run as normal
user, not able to probe things like that ?).

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_main...n/brows

Paul

Six Underground · External Since: Mar 14, 2012 Posts: 3

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David H. Lipman · External Since: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 6081

From: "Six Underground"

> On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:11:13 -0400, Paul wrote:
>
>> For the poster here, it turned out to be a Windows searchindexer process
>> that was doing it.
>
> The indexing service for searching was one of the first things that
> came to mind when I encountered this issue. Unless Windows is lying
> to me, it's turned off for the flash drive. Maybe I'll try toggling
> it while the drive is connected.
>
>> You would think a separate process would show up
>> in Sysinternals "Handle" or the handle portion of "Process Explorer".
>> But this thread also mentions a svchost being part of the problem.
>> And a utility intended specifically to help with this (like "Handle",
>> but only showing "interesting" things), apparently also has a
>> problem identifying all grabby pieces of software. I don't know
>> if that implies a privilege problem or not (utility run as normal
>> user, not able to probe things like that ?).
>>
>> http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_main...n/brows
>
> Thanks for that link; it may provide useful info. I'm going to take
> a closer look at Process Explorer too, since I'm not all that familiar
> with it. I also downloaded a NirSoft utility that may help.
>
> BTW, restarting the PC doesn't fix the issue, nor does anything of
> value appear in the event logs.
>
> In any case, Windows certainly knows that the drive is being accessed.
> Now, if I could just persuade her to tell me her secret....
>
> Thanks for responding.
>
> Regards.

Of course "restarting the PC" fixes the issue. Just remove the drive after
the OS shuts down and before it re-boots.

--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

billw50 · External Since: Jan 27, 2005 Posts: 615

In news:kgj2m7ttr9dq3u756shpsqndt25cnvf3kq@4ax.com,
Six Underground wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.
>
> When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
> and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.
>
> I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
> of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
> because it is being used by another program.
>
> In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
> Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
> don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
> have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
> no difference.
>
> I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
> accessed by another program under these conditions.
>
> I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
> unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
> reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?
>
> In advance, thanks.

I use both USB Safety Remove and Zentimo. Both are made by the same
developer. And they both tell you what the problem is and allows you to
unlock them. They aren't perfect, as there are some conditions you can
be still stuck. But they work far better than the Windows SRH and I
can't ever think of using Windows without one or another.

Safely Remove Hardware better alternative
http://www.safelyremove.com/

Zentimo is an external storage manager
http://zentimo.com/

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz - 2GB - Windows XP SP3

Hot-Text · External Since: Jan 26, 2012 Posts: 9

"Six Underground" wrote in message
>
> Hi folks.
>
> I own three Verbatim 4 GB USB flash drives.
>
> When I insert them, they trigger the "Safely Remove Hardware" function
> and subsequently put an icon for that in the system tray.
>

Yes that is right for the Hardware is not flash drives,
But the USB Port that you plug in too!

You can Safely add & Remove flash drives with out,

"Safely Remove Hardware" it for the Remove of USB Port
that your flash drives in too!

> I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
> of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
> because it is being used by another program.
>

Do you remember that you had no flash drives plug in at the time too!

> In my case, all programs are normally shut down, and I close any open
> Explorer windows. Drive indexing is turned off for those drives, so I
> don't think that's the issue. No AV is currently installed, but I do
> have Comodo Defense+ running. I disabled that too, but it made
> no difference.
>
> I can't seem to come up with a good reason for why they might be
> accessed by another program under these conditions.
>
> I tried running Sysinternals Process Explorer, but that experience was
> unrevealing. Are there other software tools available that will
> reveal which program/process is accessing the flash drive?
>
> In advance, thanks.
>
>

"J. P. Gilliver · External Since: Oct 21, 2009 Posts: 51

In message , BillW50
writes:
[]
>I use both USB Safety Remove and Zentimo. Both are made by the same
>developer. And they both tell you what the problem is and allows you to
>unlock them. They aren't perfect, as there are some conditions you can
>be still stuck. But they work far better than the Windows SRH and I
>can't ever think of using Windows without one or another.
>
>Safely Remove Hardware better alternative
>http://www.safelyremove.com/

$19.90
>
>Zentimo is an external storage manager
>http://zentimo.com/

$29.90
>
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

'So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people
to work' - Peter Drucker, "management guru", quoted by Alan Howard in
Computing,
10 December 1998.

billw50 · External Since: Jan 27, 2005 Posts: 615

In news:YhmG1ybC3GZPFwOt@soft255.demon.co.uk,
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> In message , BillW50
> writes:
> []
>> I use both USB Safety Remove and Zentimo. Both are made by the same
>> developer. And they both tell you what the problem is and allows you
>> to unlock them. They aren't perfect, as there are some conditions
>> you can be still stuck. But they work far better than the Windows
>> SRH and I can't ever think of using Windows without one or another.
>>
>> Safely Remove Hardware better alternative
>> http://www.safelyremove.com/
>
> $19.90
>>
>> Zentimo is an external storage manager
>> http://zentimo.com/
>
> $29.90

They sometimes offer specials like 50% off from time to time. That is
how I ended up with lifetime free upgrades for both of them. For example
if you already have USBSR, you can get 50% off of Zentimo.

http://zentimo.com/order.htm?usbsr=1

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz - 2GB - Windows XP SP3

Six Underground · External Since: Mar 14, 2012 Posts: 3

This message is not archived

David H. Lipman · External Since: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 6081

From: "Six Underground"

> On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:16:24 -0500, Six Underground
> wrote:
>
>> I always try to use SRH, but it doesn't always work. About 50 percent
>> of the time, Windows will tell me that the device cannot be stopped
>> because it is being used by another program.
>
> As it turns out, this story has a very strange and anticlimactic
> ending.
>
> After much time burned on attempts to track down which program was
> mysteriously busying the flash drives and coming up with nothing, I
> finally gave up and decided that, at least in Windows XP, I'd have to
> shut the PC down prior to removing them when the error message
> occurred.
>
> Then, one day, I noticed that there was more than one way to use
> Safely Remove Hardware.
>
> What I had been doing in the past was double-clicking on the tray
> icon, which brings up the full-blown Safely Remove Hardware dialog in
> which you can view the device trees and their properties; then
> stopping the device from that dialog. Half of the time, it worked..
> other times I would get the mysterious error message.
>
> Then one day, through a slip of the wrist, I managed to single-click
> the tray icon. Instead of the dialog, this brings up a small list of
> the connected USB devices. If you click on one of the devices, Safely
> Remove Hardware stops the selected device.
>
> I had never really noticed that list, but I find that if I use it to
> stop the drive, it successfully does so 100% of the time. The "device
> busy" messages no longer occur at all.
>
> I can't explain the behavior, but it seems to work for me. What the
> actual difference is between the two methods, I'll probably never
> know.
>
> It seems ironic that the very process that would so busy a drive, is
> the very one you might use to stop it, but there it is.. pause and
> ponder.
>
> I do note that in Windows 7, this feature is much more well-behaved.
> I've never had an issue stopping any flash drive in that operating
> system.
>
> Enjoy the day.
>
> 6U

Thank you for the update.

--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp