question re: external hard drive

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I've got one of those external hard drives, portable, 320GB, that you just plug in with USB 2.0.

When I go to unplug it, I right-click on the icon for it and there's no "Eject" option.

When I try to use the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon, I can select the drive but it keeps coming up with a "this device is currently in use" warning, even though there's nothing running to it or from it.

Is it OK to just unplug, or should I shut the computer off before taking the plug out? Or, is there something I'm missing?

[Der Cute]

Are you running XP? XP is the one that started the "USB Thing still plugged in, do you want to eject media?"
I've had no problems disconnecting the plug, but reading online it's not recommended: because there might be some writing going on without your knowledge.
This link helped:

http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6122_102-5204391.html

I have 2 sep external hard drives on my computer. I can disconnect either one without any popups. So I suspect there is a cache setup on yours. Check that setting, I bet it will stop your popups.

[Andara Bledin]

I usually just left-click to unmount the removable drives I hook up. Most often, it's just my phone, and since I don't turn on the usb storage feature, I don't have to unmount it.

^-.-^

[Amadan]

What OS / Version are you using (Ie Windows 7 etc)? It sounds like there might be some pre-installed software running when you plug the drive in.

[Fire_on_High]

Try it again about 30 seconds after the first time you try. I've got a thumb drive that frequently refuses it the first time, but a short time later is fine.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I'm using Windows 7. I've tried waiting... the last time I tried waiting I left it for around a half an hour (no, I'm not exagerating, I watched a Nostalgia Critic video in the time I waited and those are between 20-30 minutes).

I also have a 'thumb' drive, a little USB 4G drive that I can 'eject'. It's just the big one that's not cooperating.

[lordlundar]

I've had that happen on an external drive I have where it just keeps reading the drive for an indeterminate period of time. I've been able to just unplug it from the machine with no problems in that case.

[Moirae]

Oo, don't try to just unplug it. Trust me. I had a drive wipe on me after I did that once and the only way I could use it again was to format it. I lost everything on the drive.

Just shut down your computer. The computer using the normal shut down (meaning, click start and shut down) and it will automatically turn the drive off. Unplug the drive once the computer is completely off.

[Andara Bledin]

If the drive light is on, do not unplug it. If the drive is not active, then unplugging should cause no issues.

If you unplug it while it's writing, there is a chance that you will corrupt the file directories, and that will make the drive appear to be unusable; not because the data is gone, but because the catalog that tells the computer where on the drive the data is stored is lost. There are utilities out there (some free) that will allow you to scan the drive and pull the data off, although that will include anything you had "deleted" prior, since deleting an item only removes the directory entry and doesn't actually overwrite the data until you put something new that uses the same part of the drive.

^-.-^

[suburbandecay]

Check and see if indexing is turned on for that external drive (open "Computer", right click on drives and go to properties, look for check box at bottom of window). If it's turned on, the windows index process might be preventing the drive from ejecting because it is still trying to build/rebuild an index.

[PepperElf]

to be honest... if it's someone else's drive im careful
my own... *yanks the cord out*

yeah i did have one drive screw up because of it but the data on it wasn't irreplaceable

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Check and see if indexing is turned on for that external drive (open "Computer", right click on drives and go to properties, look for check box at bottom of window). If it's turned on, the windows index process might be preventing the drive from ejecting because it is still trying to build/rebuild an index.

Checked this and the indexing was turned on. I turned it off, but it still gives me the same message.

[dalesys]

My experience strongly implies that if a USB drive is connected during boot, I won't be able to eject/dismount that drive.

(haven't tried connecting between boot complete before log on)

Also. besides indexing, some media player programs are sneaking in the back door of the harem and diddling all the little darlings. I'm looking at you, Windows Media Player/Center!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

My experience strongly implies that if a USB drive is connected during boot, I won't be able to eject/dismount that drive.

(haven't tried connecting between boot complete before log on)

Also. besides indexing, some media player programs are sneaking in the back door of the harem and diddling all the little darlings. I'm looking at you, Windows Media Player/Center!

You always have the most colourful way of getting your point across, don't you?

Next time, I'll check to see if the player is running, see if that helps.

Oh, and I never start the computer up with the drive plugged in, so it wouldn't be that. Nice to know, though.

[dalesys]

Well, WMP also tends to auto start the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (wmpnetwk.exe), which does some of the dirty work.

I use WinAmp currently, have not idea of what iPrunes does, but like WMP I feel it is optimized for in-store demo bling. WMP's database is >> 30 times larger than WinAmp's and takes takes, literally, 100 times as long to do a complete import of my lubrary. (60,000 tracks)