Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device "This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again."

Anonymous
2011-03-23T03:39:03+00:00

Original title:Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

When I try to safely eject my external hard drive safely I get an error message with this title telling me that "This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again." I have done this. I have also tried closing every program running on the computer and it does not help. I have also tried restarting the computer and this also does nothing. If anyone has any ideas that would be helpful please let me know.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2011-03-24T03:24:11+00:00

Hi A. Cook,

1)       How long have you been facing this issue?

2)       Is this issue confined to any specific USB device?

This behavior can occur if there are open handles with any files in the USB (Universal Serial Bus) Mass Storage Device are in use by another program.

Method 1:

a)       Download Process Explorer from the link below

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

b)       Click Find, Find Handle or DLL (Dynamic Link Library) in the tool menu.

c)       Type the drive letter of the USB device in the Handle or DLL substring textbox, and press Search Button.

d)       Find the process and its PID (Process Identifier) in the following box.

e)       In system process tree view, find the process according to the Find Handle or DLL dialog box.

f)        Press Ctrl + H to show Handles in Lower Pane View.

g)       Find the File according with the drive letter, and right click it, choose Close Handle.

Reference:

Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Devicehttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/555665

Note: Using Third Party Software, including hardware drivers can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Third Party Software can be solved. Using Third Party Software is at your own risk.

**Method 2:**You may refer the steps provided by Diana D in the link below

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_vista-hardware/problem-ejecting-usb-mass-storage-deviceits-in-use/fd56805c-ed8e-491f-8a2b-39ed1c988a71

Method 3: Run an online scan for any threat and try to fix them

**http://onecare.live.com/site/en-Us/center/cleanup.htm**

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-08T22:27:48+00:00

    The replies to this helped me TREMENDOUSLY! Finally I have a way to find the task that has the device enqueued. I don't know about having to run it in Administrator mode, but it worked for me!

    Like other folks responded, I've tried deleting numerous tasks with no release of the device.

    I thought this 'Process Explorer' tool worked great -- I even KILLED the task from the Process Explorer display without having to go to Task Manager.  The key, for me, was to enter the colon in the drive specification (e.g. 'G:' not just 'G' -- no quotation marks on the Find specification).  I'll keep this tool handy because these enqueues happen more often than I like.

    Some asked why does Microsoft let this keep happening.  The answer is that tasks (or processes) acquire devices -- or other processes -- and the operating system doesn't always know or cannot tell which processes should still have the enqueue.  For me the enqueue was by a RealReader (or something like that) which I had NO IDEA had acquired a lock on the device because I had never used that program.

    Long ago, in a land far away, we used mainframe computers and the operating system was eventually upgraded to tell us SOME of the tasks or processes that had the devices enqueued. Then we could decide which tasks to kill in order to release the device so it could be dismounted.

    This little 'Process Explorer' told me which programs had my device, so it worked fine for me. I hope the rest of you find it useful, too.  Success to you!

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-09-13T09:51:59+00:00

    Finally decided to defeat this niggling issue on the GF's notebook.

    The steps in Ajay K's Method 1, based on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555665, essentially work--with the vital clarification by bill33 and chetwoot that Process Explorer must be run in admin mode (right-click Process Explorer executable and select "Run as administrator").  When I simply ran the program not in admin mode, the search in step (b) was incomplete.

    Next, because we're talking about USB storage devices being locked, simply search the drive letter assigned to the device, followed by a colon, as instructed by AshkanHaghighi.  Follow the remaining steps and you should be able to discover the culprit.  A tip is to sort the results in the lower pane by the Name column, then look for entries beginning with the letter of the affected drive (e.g. "G:").

    In my case, it was the ever pesky wmpnetwk.exe process belonging to Windows Media Player as part of its network media sharing function, something we do not use.  There were two handles involving the locked drive, which I closed according to the instructions.  Then presto, the drive became safe to remove.

    I tried to take things a bit further by disabling wmpnetwk.exe entirely according to http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/what-are-wmpnscfgexe-and-wmpnetwkexe-and-why-are-they-running/, but that's for WMP 11 and we've got 12.  Apparently there's no neat way to disable media sharing in WMP 12.  I may alternatively disable the service as described in that article if it proves to be a consistent problem.  At least now I know what process to kill in Task Manager whenever a USB drive is locked.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-06T03:41:41+00:00

    try this you might not need to put your computer to sleep again and again

    http://biosmatrix.blogspot.in/2013/06/this-device-is-currently-in-use-close.html

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