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Portable HDD won't Remove Safely Sometimes

Last response: in Storage

Hello everyone,
so I own a WD portable HDD and it seems to have problems after what I think might be from transferring files. If I transfer files off the drive to my local drive then Windows doesn't let me disconnect it safely, giving me the error "The generic volume cannot be stopped..."

I have tried Unlocker, RemoveDrive, and LockHunter to kill any processes that were using the drive and I still wasn't able to select the option to remove safely.

I did some reading and went into Event Viewer, Administrative Events, and saw that the error preventing me from removing it was because of an application with process ID 4; looked that up with tasklist command and saw that it was the "System" service - which if I read correctly is a group of services; I stopped there because I couldn't find a definite answer on how to determine and stop the specific system process.

I also tried killing the process.exe then opening it again but it still wouldn't let me remove it.

I have Quick Removal checked and so I took the drive out, plugged it back in, and it still works fine. If I try to remove safely, it does so almost instantaneously.

Also to note something that may or may not be important: I always get asked to Scan and Fix the drive when I plug it into Win7, but never do it.

So what are some actions I could take? I really get nervous about removing my external HDD without selecting that option even though I have Quick Removal on and it doesn't seem like anything is using it.

Depends on your OS and some drive write delays. Run the scan but a doubt it will make any difference. If it doesn't safe remove after waiting a while or a second try or more, just pull it so long as there is no drive activity. I haven't had any problems.

Sorry forgot to mention I'm using Win7 x64. While I appreciate the advice of just removing the drive if activity is unapparent, I really don't want to do that after every time I transfer a file because it's like playing Russian roulette; may seem fine when it's working, but when it breaks there's nothing you can do except cry.

I agree with price_th.

I have owned two Seagate Go Flex drives over 2 years. It is normal for it to show the message "..cannot be stopped" when you are trying to safely remove it. Just pull it out. I know what you're thinking, but that's just the way Seagate portable drives are. I have never lost or had issues because I pulled it out while I tried to "safely" remove it. It's fine, don't worry. It's annoying and makes you second guess, but it will be fine.