Can't always safely remove my USB HDD

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kwokwai

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I brought an external 2.5 inches 100GB HDD for
backup of my important files.

Sometimes when I tried to remove it by selecting "safely remove" on right click the USB hardware icon in the TaskBar,
Windows would say "The hdarware can't be removed now,
Please try to remove it later". What does this mean?

I found that if I tried to remove the USB HDD when I was offline, this warning message never showed me again.

So, does it mean that my PC was hacked by someone who tries to retrieve my data in this USB HDD whenever it is plugged?

Please advise!
 
no... usually it just means that windows has located a file/folder and is linked to it even if it's not in use... I have had that happen before and have just pulled it out. MOST of the time as long as your not using windows 2000 or 98 you should be good to just pull it out and not corrupt anything.
 
disable "disk write caching". windows refers to it as something like "optimise for performance" and "optimise for quick removal". if you select "optimise for quick removal" you don't need to go through the "safely remove device" crap. the option should be under the policies tab in the drive's properties in device manager.
 
Nukem said:
no... usually it just means that windows has located a file/folder and is linked to it even if it's not in use... I have had that happen before and have just pulled it out. MOST of the time as long as your not using windows 2000 or 98 you should be good to just pull it out and not corrupt anything.

Thanks, Mr Nukem.
I am using Win XP SP2.
 
nitestick said:
disable "disk write caching". windows refers to it as something like "optimise for performance" and "optimise for quick removal". if you select "optimise for quick removal" you don't need to go through the "safely remove device" crap. the option should be under the policies tab in the drive's properties in device manager.

Do I need to plug the USB HDD to my PC to see that option?
 
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