Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

I use a USB drive to backup my PC. I do NOT use the "schedule" feature of
my backup software because I prefer to backup manually, on my terms, when
the PC is not in use.

When I plug in the USB drive, or even from a fresh boot with the USB drive
already plugged in, I am unable to "safely remove" it. When I attempt to
remove it by using the "Safely Remove Hardware" program, I get an error
message that says:

Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device
Windows can't stop your "Generic volume" device because it is in use.
Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and try
again later.

I have gone through the Task Manager and closed all applications that are
running (usually, there are none running). I also click on the Processes
tab of the Task Manager and close any processes that I suspect may be
accessing the drive, e.g. all Symantec processes (on the hunch that perhaps
some of the Norton products such as "Antivirus" or "Save & Restore" may be
using the drive. Nothing seems to work.

There are always dozens of other processes running, most of them Windows
processes, which I am reluctant to start shutting down because I don't know
what they do and whether they are vital to Windows. For example, there are
13 instances of "svhost.exe" with user names like System, Local Service, and
Network Service - all with different amounts of memory usage.

The error message is typical of many Microsoft error messages: vague and
with no specific indication as to which program needs to be closed. As
there are no other applications running, my assumption is that there is some
background process that has locked the drive but, once again, no clue as to
which one.

Suggestions? other than to close every process - it is less time consuming
to simply shut down and reboot than to go through the task manager closing
every process, one at at time, to isolate the offending program.

Mine did that once because I was picking one of the 3 items presented in the
window. Try just hitting the stop button when that window comes up and
don't pick just one device.

Clark

"VistaUser" <wpla.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:EF84777B-F31C-4713-A65E-8B39D432B511@microsoft.com...
>I use a USB drive to backup my PC. I do NOT use the "schedule" feature of
> my backup software because I prefer to backup manually, on my terms, when
> the PC is not in use.
>
> When I plug in the USB drive, or even from a fresh boot with the USB drive
> already plugged in, I am unable to "safely remove" it. When I attempt to
> remove it by using the "Safely Remove Hardware" program, I get an error
> message that says:
>
> Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device
> Windows can't stop your "Generic volume" device because it is in use.
> Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and try
> again later.
>
> I have gone through the Task Manager and closed all applications that are
> running (usually, there are none running). I also click on the Processes
> tab of the Task Manager and close any processes that I suspect may be
> accessing the drive, e.g. all Symantec processes (on the hunch that
> perhaps some of the Norton products such as "Antivirus" or "Save &
> Restore" may be using the drive. Nothing seems to work.
>
> There are always dozens of other processes running, most of them Windows
> processes, which I am reluctant to start shutting down because I don't
> know what they do and whether they are vital to Windows. For example,
> there are 13 instances of "svhost.exe" with user names like System, Local
> Service, and Network Service - all with different amounts of memory usage.
>
> The error message is typical of many Microsoft error messages: vague and
> with no specific indication as to which program needs to be closed. As
> there are no other applications running, my assumption is that there is
> some background process that has locked the drive but, once again, no clue
> as to which one.
>
> Suggestions? other than to close every process - it is less time consuming
> to simply shut down and reboot than to go through the task manager closing
> every process, one at at time, to isolate the offending program.