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

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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
    2013-11-11T11:12:42+00:00

    Method 1 Step c - you need to add a colon after the drive letter. This identified for me that the problem was caused by Real Downloader recordingmanager.exe  Stopping that process - and then deactivating the offending program has solved this problem for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-18T22:34:54+00:00

    In Windows 8 you don't need to guess what process is stopping the eject of the USB device.

    Open the Even Viewer and under system you will see a message from "Kernel-PnP", example:

    "The application System with process id 4 stopped the removal or ejection for the device ..."

    Event ID: 225

    Task Category: (223)

    Once you know the process id (PID 4 in my example) you can use the task manager to kill that process. Note you might need to add the PID column to see it.

    I am not sure of older versions of Windows would have this in the Even viewer.

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