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External HD Question

post #1 of 17
4/22/05 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
I have an 80 GB Lacie external hard drive for my Dell laptop. Sometimes when I try to eject it, it says "General Volume Is In Use", even when I have no programs or anything running at all. How can I fix this? It keeps happening, so I have to resolve to shutting my laptop off, then turning off the external hd. Is this bad for the hd? Thanks.
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post #2 of 17
4/22/05 at 9:47pm
I've had something similar happen with my USB flash-drives... sometimes, even though I have closed all the programs on my desktop, I get a message saying that the volume is still in use when I try to unmount the drive. My best guess is when this happens there is something internal to Windows, maybe explorer or the Windows shell, holding a file handle on the flash-drive, and the drive cannot be unmounted until all file handles are closed.

The next time this happens, instead of rebooting your machine or shutting down, try logging out and then logging back in again. This should close any open files and allow you to unmount your drive. If the problem still remains, and rebooting is the only way to solve it, then I would suspect a hardware or driver problem.
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post #3 of 17
4/23/05 at 12:15am
Thread Starter 
Thanks alot, but that seems like a hassle everytime i want to turn it off. Anybody know any other ways?
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post #4 of 17
4/23/05 at 3:34am
i'm lazy, if it can't 'safely remove' it, i just plug it out..
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post #5 of 17
4/25/05 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 
I tried logging off, and also switching user accounts, but it still does the same thing. What the heck is generic volume? How do I get it to eject!!!
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post #6 of 17
4/25/05 at 1:51pm
I just pull it out. By default, the "Safely remove hardware" window is set so that it's ok to just unplug the device, but you may loose data if something is transferring to the device.
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post #7 of 17
4/25/05 at 9:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pl15300
I tried logging off, and also switching user accounts, but it still does the same thing. What the heck is generic volume? How do I get it to eject!!!
Have you installed applications on this volume? Maybe something that lives in your systray or runs as a background task is being launched when you log in to the machine. When you log out or shutdown the machine, all open files from the previous session are closed automatically, so this should not be causing any problems. The only thing I can think of, short of a hardware fault, is that a program you have installed to your external drive is being automatically launched at startup.
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post #8 of 17
4/25/05 at 10:02pm
If you are sure it is not being used by any other app and are not copying/transfering any data, then just unplug it. You should be ok.
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post #9 of 17
4/26/05 at 4:16am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurorix
Have you installed applications on this volume? Maybe something that lives in your systray or runs as a background task is being launched when you log in to the machine. When you log out or shutdown the machine, all open files from the previous session are closed automatically, so this should not be causing any problems. The only thing I can think of, short of a hardware fault, is that a program you have installed to your external drive is being automatically launched at startup.
I'm pretty sure. The only thing on my external hd is music and movies.
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post #10 of 17
4/26/05 at 4:32am
Still no luck? I'm all out of ideas, mate. Sorry. I guess your only option is to either keep shutting down the system, or just unplug the drive as others have suggested.
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post #11 of 17
4/26/05 at 9:57am
Just music and movies? Then definitely, just unplug it.
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post #12 of 17
4/26/05 at 11:07am
Yeah, unplug it, Windows likes to throw it's weight around, you gotta show it who's boss. If the activity light is not on or flashing, turn the thing off or tear the thing out. I've been doing that many times on my external 200GB, sometimes there's just no other way short of rebooting, which licks balls
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post #13 of 17
4/26/05 at 11:09am
Have you tried re-installing the driver? Disconnecting the hardware without locking out the software first can be potentially dangerous for it.
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post #14 of 17
4/26/05 at 12:37pm
My External HDD does that to, but if I try to eject it again it usually works. I know this doesnt help any.
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post #15 of 17
4/26/05 at 12:43pm
Just take it out ^^ It doesn't matter
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post #16 of 17
4/26/05 at 7:43pm
Yep, once in a blue moon this happens to me as well...I've been using a 160 gig Maxtor drive in enclosure for over a year now...Just unplug it if you see no reason why it needs to access it (IE streaming music etc).
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post #17 of 17
4/26/05 at 11:41pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all the replies. I just hope nothing will happen to it.
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