Unable to eject external hard drives

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Yet another bug in this ‘feature’ update.  When I connect an external hard drive so I can do an updated disk image, the update goes fine. But when I come to eject it I get a message that the disk is in use, so it will not allow ejecting.

Reverting to version 23h2 restores the functionality.  The same for showing network PCs in the Network folder.

Microsoft should be ashamed for releasing this bug ridden pile of garbage on the world and should do the decent thing by withdrawing it and rolling back to 23h2.

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I’ve had the same happen occasionally even on Windows 10 and earlier. I never bothered to dig for a permanent fix – I just restart the PC and eject the drive after I log back in.

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Yes even doing that still does not allow ejecting.  I have also had odd instances in windows 10, and fixed it using ‘your’ method. As I said restoring a 23h2 disk image solved the issue.

 

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I have experienced this when my A/V was scanning the external disk, thus making the disk active though the activity was not obvious. Sometimes I have to deactivate the A/V scanning before connection, when I am using my own disks that I know are safe, before I connect them.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, lmacri

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PKCano wrote:

I have experienced this when my A/V was scanning the external disk, thus making the disk active though the activity was not obvious.

Hi Robertos42:

Further to PK Canno’s post # 2765565, I had a similar issue a few years ago and the problem was traced back to a bug in my Malwarebytes anti-malware. See my 04-Jun-2022 post in juantho’s Malware and PUP PROTECTION Does not allow me to eject my USB after Run in the Malwarebytes for Windows forum.
———–
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.5737 * Firefox v137.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25030.2-1.1.25030.1 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.2.11.183-131.0.5227 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783

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Robertos42 wrote:

But when I come to eject it I get a message that the disk is in use, so it will not allow ejecting. Reverting to version 23h2 restores the functionality.  The same for showing network PCs in the Network folder.

Just a thought.
Updates often change setting we had back to default.
After upgrade to 24H2, check the Properties of the external drive that gives the disk in use message.
Look at the bottom of the General tab to see if
Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties
is checked.
If so, this will explain why the drive is in use and especially if it is a drive that has drive images saved.

It may not be the case, but easy to check.

HTH, Dana:))

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Drcard:)) wrote:

Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

I use several external drives for disk image and data backups.  The properties of the drives are the same in both versions. This issue was not as pronounced in 23h2 or windows 10 with only occasional disk in use messages, which were easily solved by clicking on a different drive thus allowing the ejection.

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Sorry to reply to my own post, but it appears that the answer is to reformat the external drives to xFAT but one would have to copy the data to a different place then copy back once the format was complete – what a pain that would be.

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Robertos42 wrote:

it appears that the answer is to reformat the external drives to exFAT

I’m not convinced that this is a solution.

If you use something like Lockhunter then you’ll no doubt find that the drive cannot be ejected due to metadata writes caused by journaling/indexing.

I use Lockhunter‘s right-click context menu option to check what’s holding up drive ejection and to force removal of file locks when necessary:

Have a look at something like Pros and Cons of File Systems used with Internal and External Drives.

Yes, changing to exFAT will no doubt get rid of the eject issue… but IMO you’ll have given up the advantages of a more resilient filesystem.

Hope this helps…

5 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, satrow, Robertos42, windbg, Paul T

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Rick Corbett wrote:

I’m not convinced that this is a solution.

No I agree its not something I would want to do.  Anyway, for now I have given up on 24H2 and restored 23h2 which just works better in every respect even eject :-).

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions but I will stay with it for now until I am forced to ‘upgrade’ .  Heres hoping MS will clear up some of the bugs and make it properly useable by then.

 

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If your external drive is a Samsung and if you have Samsung magician, you have to disable the “CMigrationService”.
This will solve the problem.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Robertos42

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WSaltamirano wrote:

If your external drive is a Samsung

My external drives are mostly Crucial ssds, so thats not an issue. But thanks for the idea.

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Robertos42 wrote:

Yet another bug in this ‘feature’ update.  When I connect an external hard drive so I can do an updated disk image, the update goes fine. But when I come to eject it I get a message that the disk is in use, so it will not allow ejecting.

Reverting to version 23h2 restores the functionality.  The same for showing network PCs in the Network folder.

Microsoft should be ashamed for releasing this bug ridden pile of garbage on the world and should do the decent thing by withdrawing it and rolling back to 23h2.

This issue isn’t new, its been around for quite some time. The link below will provide some useful information, if you are interested in learning more about it.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/do-you-want-stop-using-safely-remove-hardware-notification-icon/

2 users thanked author for this post.

satrow, Robertos42

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Sir_George wrote:

This issue isn’t new, its been around for quite some time

Thanks for that.  The link is very informative and clears up micconcetions.  I will try just unplugging the drives and see what happens

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Just be sure… “On the Policies tab, you’ll see two removal policies listed: “Quick removal (default)” and “Better performance.” The “Quick removal (default)” policy should be the one selected.”

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