windows vista - USB safe removal notification keeps popping up

07
2014-07
  • Laurent

    I have a Dell inspiron laptop with windows vista. It has been working perfectly until lately, a problem has been bugging the hell out of me. Ever minute, a USB safe removal notification in the battery/time bar keeps popping up. It disappears instantly. The sound also plays every time. This by itself didn't bug me, until it started to slow down my computer momentarily every 5 seconds or so. This also happens even though there isn't a single usb plugged in (including mouse, printer...) Please help. Thanks

    • Answers
  • CharlesH

    As Ramhound mentioned it's always a tussle of trying to find out if its hardware or software that's causing the problem.

    If you load your Device Manager in Windows you can expand down Universal Serial Bus Controllers and double click on each USB Root Hub then click on the power tab within here you will see if any devices are 'plugged in' (or at least se if Windows thinks they are plugged in).

    Within the Device Manager you can also right click on your USB Host Controllers and uninstall them, restart your machine and they will re-install, giving them a fresh install could solve the issue.

    Finally reinstalling Windows might solve the issue but not if the issue is hardware.

    Sorry I know this is not an 'answer' as such but too long for a comment, hope it helps.


    • Related Question

    How to safely remove a USB drive when "Windows can't stop your 'Generic volume' device because a program is still using it."?
  • Mike

    With Windows XP and Windows Vista, I try to remove an external USB hard drive, but usually get the message ""Windows can't stop your 'Generic volume' device because a program is still using it.". I tried closing all programs on the desktop, but it still won't give the "safe to remove" message.

    I am generally able to make flash drives safe to remove without a problem.


    • Related Answers
  • nik

    Look for RemoveDrive on this page (direct link to the Drive Tools page RemoveDrive tool section).
    Those pages also have good related information.

    The RemoveDrive tool is useful also when
    you Do not get ‘Safely remove’ option in Tray for USB storage devices.

  • harrymc

    There are several reasons to USB being undismountable:

    1. It's in use. Please note that if you're looking at the disk in Explorer, then it's in use!
    2. Windows is finishing copying a big file to or from the disk (rarely the reason)
    3. A bug in Windows causes conime.exe to get stuck on the disk (it may safely be killed)
    4. If the USB drive is formatted as NTFS, the journal of all file updates may still be open
    5. If disk indexing is on for the drive, Windows may be furiously indexing all files on it

    My advice is to:

    1. Make sure the USB drive is not defined as indexed.
    2. Wait, and then try again. It might work a few seconds later on.
    3. Buy Zentimo ($29.90) that does a good job of trying to remove the disk. Even if it fails, it still tells you which programs are using what files (I paid).
  • Arjan

    I found the free USB Disk Eject to be very useful:

    A program that allows you to quickly remove drives in Windows. It can eject USB disks, Firewire disks and memory cards. It is a quick, flexible, portable alternative to using Windows’ “Safely Remove Hardware” dialog.

  • Computer service Perth

    Often this will be because the drive is being indexed; right click the drive>properties, and uncheck index. Or the AV is monitoring the drive - turn off AV to test this.

  • MJ.

    If it's none of the pedestrian/common options, it could be you have the drive listed as 'shared' on a network and have accessed it via another computer. In my case, even though the remote computer was off, it still had a lock on the directories. Unshare and it should work if that's the case.

  • Peter Mortensen

    This is by no means a good answer, but you can always shut down the computer and remove the USB device.

  • Jawa

    Take a look for programs installed recently, which can prevent safe HDD disconnection.

    In my case it was Magical Defrag 2: any newly connected disk with new letter assigned was automatically marked, so now after unmark I can safely remove the USB drive.

  • ChrisF

    This is due to the fact that there is at least a process/program that is still accessing your USB drive. It may not be enough if you just close all the programs on dekstop, if you are copying folders from/to the USB hard disk, you will get this message.

    Try and find what process is holding the resource and either complete or close the process and you should be able to remove the USB hard disk without any problems.

    Do let us know how it goes.

  • legoscia
    • Right click on the properties of the USB drive in Windows Explorer.
    • In the popup window click on "Hardware".
    • Identify the drive and left click on it once to highlight it, then click the properties box.
    • Click on the Policies tab and select "Optimize for quick removal" and click OK.

    If you're sure that none of your own processes are still in use on this USB just pull it out.