USB drive are not allowed to be` safely disconnected in vista prem

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

froy02 - 29 Oct 2007 03:07 GMT

I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
removed though no application is using them. It happoens to both a toshiba
laptop and a desktop ruuning vista.
I tried to just plug them in without doing anything and still get the same
message "could disconnect because an application is using it". I wait for
hours and still nothing.
I do not have any problem with them in windows xp or linux.
Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely disconnect
it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.

Reply to this Message

Dave T. - 29 Oct 2007 03:38 GMT

> I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
> but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely disconnect
> it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.

My external drive is the same way as long as the drive window is open in
either explorer or my computer. Close the window and use the disconnect
icon in the task bar and see if that helps. This is what I have to do.

Signature

"In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I
have made the great
discovery that liberty is a product of order"
Will Durant

Reply to this Message

PaulB - 29 Oct 2007 20:55 GMT

It may be Windows indexing that is using the drives.

Signature

Paul

> > I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
> > but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> either explorer or my computer. Close the window and use the disconnect
> icon in the task bar and see if that helps. This is what I have to do.

Reply to this Message

R. C. White - 30 Oct 2007 15:31 GMT

Hi, froy02.

Run Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc). Right-click on each drive and choose
Properties. Is there a Policies tab? If so, you can choose between
Optimize for quick removal or Optimize for performance. Choose quick
removal.

When optimized for performance, Vista caches "writes" to the device, and
worries that data "in the pipeline" might be lost if the device is
unexpectedly unplugged. But when we optimize for quick removal, Vista takes
a few extra seconds to close the cache after each write, thus clearing the
pipeline, so that nothing gets lost on a quick disconnect.

RC

Signature

R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta 2 in Vista Ultimate x64)

> I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted
> ntfs
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> disconnect
> it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.

Reply to this Message