Thread: How do I remove a USB drive?

How do I remove a USB drive if Windows says that it isn't safe to do so?

INSTEAD OF EXPLAINING why a drive can't be safely removed, Windows simply recommends-via a dialog box-that you wait and try again, and that often works. But while you're waiting, check your task¬bar and system tray for apps that might be running files off the USB drive. Close any such programs, as well as any apps that were running files from that drive, even if you've already closed those files.
Still no luck? Try Task Manager:
1. Press <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Delete>. In Vista, follow that by clicking Start Task Manager.
3.Click the Processes tab.
4.Examine the list of processes, looking for anything that could be from that drive-a process with a name similar to that of one of the files on the drive, for instance.

4. If you do find such a process, select it, click the End Process button, and then confirm your decision when prompted.
5. Try removing the drive again.
If Windows still won't let you remove the drive, it's time for des¬perate measures. Here are two:
I. You can shut down your PC, remove the device, and then reboot It works, but it's time consuming and annoying.
2. You could take a deep breath and just pull the stupid thing out I know, I'm not supposed to tell you that It's bad advice. But I've done it more times than I'd care to admit, and it has never back- fired on me. I can't guarantee that it won't backfire on you, however. And don't even think about attempting this if your external drive is NTFS-formatted.

If those solutions don't help, here's another one you can try. Download and install USB Safely Remove (on the DVD). This shareware program puts its own icon in the system tray in place of Windows' remove icon. When it can't safely close a drive, it shows you what processes are causing the problem and allows you to stop them.
USB Safely Remove has other cool fea¬tures, too. You can rename your USB devic¬es, set up a hot-key to stop a particular device, and set autorun options.