External Hard drive won't eject?

[hickfarm]

I have a 20 gig external hard drive that is usb. I am tring to stop it so i don't have it running constantly.

But everytime i try to eject it says"Cannot be stopped right now, Try stopping the device later." I have waited all day and still says the same thing.

Does anybody have an idea why it won't let me stop the harddrive? I don't want to ruin it by just turning the power off.

 

[talldude123]

You have to stop it by going into the Device Manager.

 

[Vybuni]

You don't have anything running off of it do you?

 

[hickfarm]

You have to stop it by going into the Device Manager.

I just click on the icon in the bottom corner to safely remove hardware and it doesn't work.

I don't have anything running off the hard drive either. Unless there is something in the background that i don't know about.

 

[talldude123]

Did you go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager -> Locate the Hard drive, and right click on "disable"?

 

[hickfarm]

Did you go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager -> Locate the Hard drive, and right click on "disable"?

I did that just now. I said that i disabled the hard drive, but i have to restart my pc for it take affect.

Most of the time i can right click the safely remove icon and it will stop the hard drive. But today and a few other times it won't let me do this.

I can live with it, but it is just a inconvenience and i am curious why it won't let me stop it that way.

 

[The General]

Step 1: Grab USB cable.

Step 2: Pull.

 

[hickfarm]

But that isn't good for the hard drive though. I don't want to ruin it.

 

[talldude123]

My MP3 player uses a hard drive, and that's how i eject it.

 

[Crysalis]

that is what USB is for... hot swap/plug. That safely remove thing is just a windows thing so that it makes sure the drive isn't in use. But, if you aren't using it, and can't recall anything that would be, then it should be fine.

Just pull the USB cord or turn the drive off (if the case has a power switch). Its just like unplugging or turning off a USB printer.