Trouble Safely Removing WD Passport...

I just thought I'd try emailing you guys to see if you had any ideas on a problem I'm having on my laptop....and before I turn into something resembling Father Jack off of Father Ted, but more intent on damaging my laptop than 'Drenk', 'Girls' and 'Feck'!

So here's the scene...
I have a Vista laptop. I also have a WD Passport external USB hard drive. I plug the drive into the laptop and it comes up in the usual drive list in Explorer. I can't safely remove it however via the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in the system tray. Instead I get the 'Windows can't stop your 'generic volume' device because a program is still using it. ...' message. Fair enough, although I've not got anything referring to that drive that I know of. I know that stuff like Vista indexing and Anti virus software can be a pain in the arse and prevent these things ejecting.

I have noticed though that the drive appears in a category I wouldn't expect in Explorer. Instead of being classed as a 'Device with removable storage' and being in that section with the likes of my USB pens and my old Sony Network Walkman (basically just a 20gb portable HD), it resides in the 'Hard Disk Drives' section with all my internal HDs.
Hmmmm - is this part of the problem? That it being classified wrongly and so Vista is treating like one of it's internal drives and hence why ejeculating it isn't happening?

Anyway, if you could spare a moment or two to have a think on this and give me any insights you have I'd be grateful as it's annoying the hell out of me and I can't seem to find anything on the net that's any help.

Thanks...
DT

Usually, Externals have softwares running through them. You will probably be able to terminate the process (software) by going into Task Manager. If you seriously do not know what your doing, then I do not suggest this. You could easily bust your computer if you misclick here..

Anyhow; if you know what process that software is, you can just terminate it.

As for the classification; I highly doubt it. Internals cannot even be ejected in the first place. So the placing of it is not an issue.

Twilight you got the same problem as me!

I think alot of people have these problems.

And as for the classification, it places it with the Hard Drives because it technically is a HARD DRIVE. It isn't an Flash Drive, where that is "removable".

Actually it's recognized as a mass storage device, that's why it's included in that category.

Actually it's recognized as a mass storage device, that's why it's included in that category.

Aren't normal flash drives "mass storage device"?

The USB mass storage device class or USB MSC or UMS is a set of computing communications protocols defined by the USB Implementers Forum that run on the Universal Serial Bus. The standard provides an interface to a variety of storage devices.
A USB flash drive like this one will typically implement the USB mass storage device class.

Some of the devices which are connected to computers via this standard are:

* external magnetic hard drives
* external optical drives, including CD and DVD reader and writer drives
* portable flash memory devices
* adapters bridging between standard flash memory cards and a USB connection
* digital cameras
* various digital audio players & portable media players
* Card readers
* Portable Gaming systems (Nokia N-GAGE/Sony PSP)
* personal data assistants and handheld computers
* some newer mobile phones, such as the Sony Ericsson K800 and K510, Nokia N73, Nokia E61

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...Y-DZZAD96K22L80

Usually, Externals have softwares running through them.

Unless there is a operating system running or an application running on an external hdd then there shouldn't be any activity.

And as for the classification, it places it with the Hard Drives because it technically is a HARD DRIVE. It isn't an Flash Drive, where that is "removable".

A external hdd is a removable device, especially SATAs since they are hot swappable, they have the same protocol for safe removal as other removable USB devices.

The USB mass storage device class or USB MSC or UMS is a set of computing communications protocols defined by the USB Implementers Forum that run on the Universal Serial Bus. The standard provides an interface to a variety of storage devices.
A USB flash drive like this one will typically implement the USB mass storage device class.

Some of the devices which are connected to computers via this standard are:

* external magnetic hard drives
* external optical drives, including CD and DVD reader and writer drives
* portable flash memory devices
* adapters bridging between standard flash memory cards and a USB connection
* digital cameras
* various digital audio players & portable media players
* Card readers
* Portable Gaming systems (Nokia N-GAGE/Sony PSP)
* personal data assistants and handheld computers
* some newer mobile phones, such as the Sony Ericsson K800 and K510, Nokia N73, Nokia E61

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...Y-DZZAD96K22L80

Usually, Externals have softwares running through them.

Unless there is a operating system running or an application running on an external hdd then there shouldn't be any activity.

And as for the classification, it places it with the Hard Drives because it technically is a HARD DRIVE. It isn't an Flash Drive, where that is "removable".

A external hdd is a removable device, especially SATAs since they are hot swappable, they have the same protocol for safe removal as other removable USB devices.

Don't externals have softwares or drivers in them to make them operate correctly? Correct me if i'm wrong. I'm basing this off knowledge of PREVIOUS external Hard Drives. I no longer use them. (No need, 1TB HDD )

A hdd doesn't need any drivers or software to make it operate properly, it's only a storage device which only needs to be formatted in order to store data. Most all external hdds come formatted in FAT-32. I don't know what software if any is loaded on these hdds at the factory, but there are downloads that the manufacturers offer, like the ones here.

Oh, I see what you mean. It's been a while, so my information might be incorrect. So do you know why they cant use that "remove safely" option? Is it because they might be accessing the files that are in the External?

I don't have a positive answer for that one, I've experienced it with a flash drive on my own computer and know for a fact that I wasn't accessing anything. Googling so far hasn't produced anything specific.

Twilight you got the same problem as me!

Hoorah!
I'm not alone. Well I shouldn't really celebrate you being having this annoying trouble as well, but hopefully a solution will come out of it for you too!

DT

Hello.

Thanks for the responses. It's interesting following what you're saying.

So, am I to grasp from that that:
1) It doesn't matter where my drive appears in the explorer drives under 'Computer', it should still be ejectable or able to be safely removed?
2) I have no control whatsoever as to which section the drive appears in, be it in 'Hard Disk Drives' or 'Drives with Removable storage'?

It's just such an annoying thing... although what's more annoying is those people who respond to posts about not being able to eject a drive with their "solution" of 'Just log out then you can remove the drive' - luckily no one here has the gall to do that.

Anyway, so what's the solution? As someone rightly said, searching in Google comes up with not a lot.

Why is it that XP doesn't bat an eyelid over this? Surely those same protocols you were talking about are in force with XP?

I'm close to getting on the phone to WD and....making their day, Punk!

DT

FWIW - there are many different programs that use Explorer like threads to monitor attached devices. And most aren't obviously doing it, so figuring out which one it is is difficult.

To do it, go to the Processes tab of Task Manager and start ending processes one-by-one (leave the svchost.exe one's until last - as some of them will force a restart). Test the Safely Remove function after each one until you find the culprit.

I was having the same problem and thought perhaps it was from fast indexing....I had the prob one other time with the WD hard drive (320 gbs) and took off their backup software. Found it very cumbersome.

I, today, checked under device manager> disk drives, then right clicked on my WD drive to go to properties. found that it is no set to be disengaged WITHOUT having to "safely remove hardware." It's optimized for quick removal, even though it is listed under the "safely remove hardware" in the systray.

If it's running, then its gotta be their software that WD has loaded the hard drive with and has been installed on your computer, i think. I use the updated sync software WD provided and am able to manually turn it off and on. I also have my iTunes music files on my Passport. That could lso be a problem of it running continually running. That's when I turn all my iTunes stuff off in the processes.

I don't know if your problem has been solved but hope so.

BTW, my first post here..... debbie