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Unable to Eject Portable Drive

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dm
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Unable to Eject Portable Drive

Hi,

I am unable to eject my portable drive after closing the portable apps interface - I receive a "device still in use" error. This happens consistently on my Windows 7 desktop as well as one with Vista. There doesn't seem to be a problem with XP. I have to log out or shut down to safely remove my drive.

For the longest time I suspected Adobe Reader to the be the culprit - but I have been doing some testing, and I don't think it is. I wish someone would design a program that identifies the process still accessing a portable drive! I have been trying to see the offending process when I log out, but the screen cycles by too quickly.

I realize there could be any number of things causing this to happen. I thought I would check in with you in case this has happened to others, and if there is a known solution.

Thanks very much!

John T. Haller
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Unlocker

You need something like an unlocker: https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/iobit-unlocker-portable

That will identify it for you.

If you have the platform set to automatically close your apps on exit, it will also identify any portable processes still running from the device. It won't identify any non-portable apps that are locking other files, though.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Gord Caswell
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External Hard Drive

In addition to what John's said here, note that in my experience, external hard drives show up as "local" drives, meaning unlocker won't run on that drive.

John T. Haller
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Should Run

Unlocker doesn't unlock drives. It shows what files are "locked" and can't be renamed/moved/deleted.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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