i just installed PA on my 250gb external HD. its a seagate free agent go. it uses 2 USB ports and no AC power. anyways, i did a full format before installing PA and for some reason when i use it on either of my 2 comps running Home premium 64bit it simply wont safely remove. i dont even have to run anything. say i just plug it in and dont open anything on it. if i try to close the PA program in my taskbar and then safely remove it will say its being used by something. is this common and how do i remove safely in that case.
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It sounds to me as though some application is leaving file handles open. I would recommend that you install something like Microsoft Process Explorer to look at what file handles are still open, and report back as to what they are. Then we might be able to offer specific advice.
I've had trouble with both Microsoft Office and OpenOfice.org keeping a handle open on the file after I've used it, until I close all the windows of the apps.
Oh yeah, also with some apps when you're using them they take a bit of time to actually close after you've closed their windows. A minute or two should normally be long enough to wait for them to all close, but you can use Task Manager or Process Explorer to see whether they are still running or not.
Edit: oh yeah, to find out what's open, through Process Explorer, go Ctrl+F and type in "X:" and press Search, where X is the drive letter you're on.
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I often have this problem on my external hard drive (SUMOdisk 320 Gb) even when there are no processes using it (according to unlocker anyway) but never on my thumbdrive which also has PA on it.
Basically, I've no idea how to fix it but it doesn't seem that it is PA at fault
id causing this on my side. When the local installed FF is not closed, the stick will refuse to unmount correctly. no idea why exactly?
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
well it happen all the time for me, even without useing anything, by just inserting the flash disk and copy-paste from the desktop... e
everyone tell me to ignore useing the: Safe To Remove.. and just un-plug it.
but if you were afraid of loseing important stuff, then first leave it for a while, and try again (most of the time works), or simlpy close the computer.
In the past when I had this problem I found it to be caused by my firewall. Shutting down the firewall would release the app. A patch to the firewall solved the problem.
Ed
When checking unlocker, most of the times is explorer.exe sticked in any dll... I just unlock (with unlocker) or just turn off the computer and remove the drive with the computer turned off... and if I can't turn of the pc, wait until there is no light in the drive and just unplug it...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report