I've got a Seagate Free Agent Pro external drive (currently connected via eSATA), which solidly refuses to disconnect from the system, using the "safe disconnect" dance.
Whenever I try, after a pause I get the error message: "This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again." I have tried closing just about everything down, but the message still appears.
1) Is there a way to tell if my drive is actually in use? Can I tell which program is using the drive?
2) Can I force-disconnect the drive in such a way that any pending writes are completed? (i.e., not just disconnecting the cable and hoping for the best)
Before you ask, I did look for device-specific drivers on Seagate's web site. No luck. There's some disk management utilities to help manage backups and/or syncs, but no drivers.
Whenever I try to eject a certain external hard drive using the little icon in the task window, I get a message that it is in use. I am very careful to be sure it is not in use but still get the message. This is a data storage disc. I am not aware of any programs on it that may be running in the background. Is there a way to examine a disc to see just what is being used on it at any given time?
When i try to saefly remove my external hard drive i get the "cannot stop right now because something is using it,anybody know how i can find out what is using it and how i can sort it?
I got a new Seagate 500GB HD (sorry about the wrong thread title). For the first two weeks or so, I could eject my HD through "Safely Remove" but since then I get the usual "Generic volume is still in use" message, inspite of closing all processes that might possibly be using it.I keep the HD connected to my PC virtually all the time, even when I shut down and reboot. But every now and then, I need to disconnect it. And to do that, I have to shut down the computer first and then disconnect it.Whenever I update Windows, I see that a temporary folder is created in the HD while the updates are being downloaded which has led me to think that a process uses the HD but I can't find out which one it is and how to terminate it properly.There are no problems when I use the HD in other computers.
.I didn't wait for the computer to tell me it was ok to remove the drive in the usb port. Now my computer no longer recognizes the external drive After removing my external hard drive (without the ok) my computer no longer recognizes the external hard drive. What do I do.
I often open content on my (Toshiba) portable hard drive from applications on the local hard drive. In WinXP, I didn't have any problems ejecting the portable drive once I was done and closed the application. ...To be clear, when I did get an "in use" error message, I would simply go into Task Manager and see what offending application processes were still running; once they were stopped, the drive ejected.
Now on Windows 7, the system will not let me properly eject the drive even though the Task Manager shows that I have no applications open on the computer. Each time I try, whether from the taskbar icon or the Devices window, it gives the message that the device cannot be ejected at this time because it's in use. As DaPiit said, this is really annoying because attaching and ejecting USB devices is something I do many times per day! The Windows 7 is not on my machine - I still run WinXP, and this more than anything else is making me REALLY consider finally switching to a Mac instead. (And I've been a Windows user for over 15 years...)
Is there some Windows process that needs to be stopped that I don't know about? I'm really reluctant to just "pull the plug" every time I need to remove the drive.
I have an internal hard disk not in use ,and I would like to make it as external disk !I looked on the net and I found I should have the " encelsure " butt I think I wont find it here in my city .So is there another way ? like usb -esata cable
Me and my brother built me a new computer from scratch (he did the building - i did the watching). I purchased an internal hard drive from Overclockers UK. It's a Samsung 1TB drive. I also have a 64 Solid-state drive in there as my primary hard drive that Windows was installed on and a couple of programs are installed on. My storage disk (the 1TB disk) is for all my music/films etc. Whenever I drag and drop a file into the Samsung hard-drive - it copies it rather than moves it instantly.When I had a laptop, I had 3 external hard drives and this is the way it copied files onto them.how I can get the internal drive to stop acting like an external drive?
I have a USB external hard drive that I keep all my documents etc on (had it for years)I upgraded from Vista Home to & Home Premium then had to upgrade recently to Professional to run my Sage. Through all these upgrades my ext. drive ran fine. Occasionally the drvie letter would change if I had something else plugged into the USB, this was always easily corected in disk management by changing the drive path.The connection on the case packed up so I had to get the drive put into a new case, now when I plug it in the drive is assigned G instead of F, I tried to change the drive letter allocation in Disk Management but it won't let me as the program still thinks I have a second ext. hard drive which is labelled F. I suspect this has happened because when the usb connection broke the drive was disconnected suddenly instead of a proper eject.How do I get Disk Management to remove the inactive drive - i can't find any obvious way - eject, delete etc are all missing when I click on tools or tasks.
I just got an external hard drive yesterday, and have been asking a few questions on this forum. So far, people have managed to be very helpful with the previous questions, hopefully someone can do so here too.Reinstalling all my games to external hard drive, need to know if they will / how to make them appear / function properly in my GEF, whether added automatically or manually.I am basically going to have EVERYTHING put onto my 1TB external, and by everything I mean "Music, Pictures, Videos, Documents, Games, and maybe Programs". So, I made a folder for each of those things on it,and only now that I am reinstalling my games into the Programs one have I realized something.I am a bit obsessive about having a fully functioning Game Explorer Folder (GEF) with all my games visible in it. It's my assumption that when I install into an external hard drive, none of those games will be automatically added into the GEF. However, if I add them in manually (using the regedit method in the tutorial), should everything function properly, so long as I have my external hard drive on whenever I use the computer?I just need this to be confirmed before I start reinstalling more. Also, if not, please let me know if there IS a way to get them to show up in my GEF properly, or possibly move the GEF to the external hard drive or get it to recognize things from a different directory.
In order to make upgrading via a clean install easier -- and because I've been considering one for awhile anyway -- I'm looking at picking up a decent external hard drives right now... and can't seem to find a clear answer to something:
Will I see any drop off in quality of playback or computer performance if I use a drive like this (external, USB) to store all of my recorded videos. The tuner and Media center would save everything directly to this drive and play everything directly from it. Would that cause any problems at all? I notice that it requires no power adapter since it's USB powered, and it has a Interface Transfer Rate of 480 Mbps -- not sure how either of these apply to my potential use of it.
Attached an external sata hd with an esata connection. After power boot, external drive not recognized and also secondary internal sata hd not recognized.
Do I need to do something to the BIOS?Sinch stonooka has chosen the best answer to his/her question.Click here to view the answer that was selected.
My windows vista computer died. I have backed it up on and Iomega external hard drive but can't figure out how to restore the information to the new computer which is a windows 7.
I just got a new Packard bell go external hard drive which I used for a couple of days with no problem. btw it has never fell or had any physical damage. I plugged it one day into the PC and it couldn 't be detected in my computer. it shows up in devices and printers and also in disk management. I read on some forums to try and initialize it but it gives me an error saying cyclic redundancy check. I 've tried everything but still not working. this is a new hard drive which has never fell and no physical damage. and please don' t tell me to return it cos it was bought in another country. the only option right now is to fix it?
Running Win 7 home, acer 1800.About a week ago I installed a Buffalo 1.5 TB external drive and automatic back up package, it was working very well, however it now shows as " Not Connected".I have replaced the usb lead but no change in status.It is also no showing up with other drives?Any one had this problem and found a fix?I did a search but found nothing quite like this.
I have a 2TB Seagate hard drive that keeps dropping out in Windows 7. I use it as my main backup drive and when writing to it using either of the two backup apps I use the drive usually "disconnects" and I have to switch it off and on again to use it.I've tried using a different USB port and a different USB cable - same thing. I have run Windows 7 error-checking checking which reports no errors.When it disconnects, device manager shows that it is still connected and working but it definitely doesn't work. For instance, I can double click and open it but it shows no folders. Switching it off and then on fixes this but only temporarily.
after plugging in the external hard drive after a while I get you need to format the disk in F:\ do you want to format?After a while throws another warning saying F: is not accessible, Data error (cyclic redundancy check)It was working well until last week but then suddenly started giving this error message.
I have been using a commercial company to back up my computer for the last 2 years. Now I have decided to do my own backups. I already did the first back up to the external drive. Now its time to back up again, when I back up again, will everything be backed up again? Or just the files that have changed?
I want to back up files ,pictures using an extrnal hard drive. After researching this matter I'm now more confused. I know what size I want but not sure if I need a Sata or usb or what. Please explain what I need and the difference.
I was using Win XP on my Toshiba Satellite A215 S5818 until yesterday, now im using windows 7, so i insert my Transcend Storejet external hard drive, it was working perfectly like it used to. So i left my lap top running through the whole night because i was downloading something. I get up this morning and my disk isnt working. I was looking for a solution but no use, i tried to initialize the disk with disk management and i get the "incorrect function" error.
I noticed that i have two drivers that are not installed, both of them are "base system device", i tried to upgrade them automaticly online but windows cant find the drivers. The thing is i have valuable stuff on the drive, so i just need the files, i can get rid of the drive right away with the guarantee and get a new one.
Got a Acer laptop with Windows 7 for Christmas and previous had a computer with Windows XP. I had a external hard drive that when ever I connect to the computer it is automatically detected and will come up in My Computer. I went to connect my external drive last night and nothing as happened apart from whenever I connected the computer made a noise that something had been connected but there is nothing in My Computer.
So after the hard drive fiasco that I reported in another thread, I got clever and decided to create an "Emergency Boot Drive" that would have Windows on it as well as some utilities for data recovery. I took one of the many old hard drives that I have floating around and plugged it into the computer AND unplugged my other two drives. Then I ran Windows Install off the DVD and installed Windows to the old drive. I installed my software. All was good. I plugged in the other two drives and tried to boot from the "Emergency" drive and it worked fine.Last step was to unplug the emergency drive from the motherboard, connect it via USB and try to boot. The BIOS sees the drive and I tell it to boot from the drive. So the computer is booting. The "Starting Windows" message comes up and then the system reboots. This happens everytime I try it.Does Windows reset the USB ports so that the drive suddenly vanishes?
i recently upgraded to windows 7 but was unable to use my external hard drive. every time i try to copy files onto it, it say that there is a reading error. the following message appears:
Can't read from source file or disk
I cannot copy stuff onto my hard drive but can copy stuff from my hard drive to my comp.
