I can't safely pull out my external hard drive?
I can't safely pull out my external hard drive?
Hello everyone, I plugged in my external hard disk and nothing happened except that several big files from many folders were deleted. After a while, I couldn't safely take it out from the icon tray. So here is what I tried : Restarted Windows Explorer through Task Manager. It didn't work ❌ Ended the task for Windows Explorer and started a new one. That also failed ❌ Turned off Disk Write caching. No good ❌ Turned off the Indexing Option. None of those were checked. Didn't work ❌ Tried something like this : Disabled (unchecked) Allow file on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties. Applied that setting to a subfolder too. Still didn't work ❌ Disabled Microsoft Windows Defender and turned the firewall off (No antivirus was installed, and even Bitdefender's agent had been deleted). Didn't work❌ I installed Sysinternals Suite and gave direct access to the drives. I checked two of them. Although I don't have a picture, for one drive it showed indexing information,"and \$(something)," which is related to the system. It might be best to wait until the system has finished its process. Finally, what I did : I was able to turn off the computer, but first I took the disk offline from Disk Management. Then, I clicked on Safely Remove Hardware icon , and magic happened. Finally, I turned off the computer completely. After it shut down, I unplugged the external hard drive. My questions please : What is the best way to handle this same situation? Should I ask for help from third-party software? Thanks and regards
hey guys, I think this BSOD is connected with what i did when trying to safely take out the external drive. I asked here: https://forums. Should I try more things like turning on Safe Mode? Maybe that will show me some logs? i have already run SMART on both my internal and external hard drives. they are both good.
Two hours passed before I tried to turn the computer back on. That's when I got a BSOD error message. I then posted this post here: https://forums.
After a while, I couldn't get rid of that drive safely. Did you know how to right-click on the drive in This PC (on Windows 10 or newer) and click eject? When making a post about fixing things, people need their computer specs listed. Please list your build like this: CPU, cooler, motherboard, ram, hard drives, graphics card, power supply, case, operating system, monitor. Also tell me how long the power supply has been there besides its brand and model number. Tell us what version of BIOS your motherboard is on now. Just write one thread instead of many to avoid confusion.
I've got this same program around now, and I have used it for a long time since Windows 7 days ago. Actually, maybe back when Windows XP was popular? It has never let me down before. It always tells you exactly which file is blocking things, and even more importantly, it can fix the whole drive if that's what you need. Plus, it's really good at removing bad stuff like malware that won't delete itself just by typing in a password or doing something else.
I really appreciate your help. Does using that feel like a lot of trouble?
Very simple. After installing it, a new choice shows up in the right-click menu called "What is locking this file?". When you click that, the Lochunter program starts (it might ask for permission based on your Windows security settings). Click Yes, and then a new window appears telling you what is locking the file or drive. From there, you can unlock it, delete files, or do other things. Use the lockhunter setup file to change the lock setting. There is another program that helps safely remove USB drives (or restart them when they are plugged in). If your external hard drive isn't connected via USB, this program won't help you. But if it's using USB connection, you can also try that one too.
It is connected through a USB port. My problem is that I can't take it out safely. If there are multiple drives (like partitions) and clicking "remove safely" does not work or shows an error message, should I try removing them all at once? Does this program let me choose which drive to remove safely, similar to the safe eject option in Windows?
Once you have installed LockHunter, go to This PC (the place where your connected drives show up). Click on your external drive and right-click it to open a menu. For removable disks, choose Eject. If that doesn't work, try the "What is locking this file?" option in LockHunter to see what's happening.