F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop I can't safely pull out my external hard drive?

I can't safely pull out my external hard drive?

I can't safely pull out my external hard drive?

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Pyrophorion
Member
197
08-03-2026, 05:40 AM
#1
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
P
Pyrophorion
08-03-2026, 05:40 AM #1

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

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oOEmmaOo
Posting Freak
818
08-03-2026, 06:46 PM
#2
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.
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oOEmmaOo
08-03-2026, 06:46 PM #2

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.

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F50_United
Member
183
08-04-2026, 02:47 AM
#3
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.
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F50_United
08-04-2026, 02:47 AM #3

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.

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ByFeNix1350
Senior Member
502
08-06-2026, 10:06 AM
#4
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.
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ByFeNix1350
08-06-2026, 10:06 AM #4

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.

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RKawaii
Junior Member
1
08-06-2026, 06:03 PM
#5
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.
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RKawaii
08-06-2026, 06:03 PM #5

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.