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After uninstalling Norton (as it came preinstalled after on my computer) I started to experience an issue, whenever I would try to eject my hard drive I would get an error, after looking in event viewer I saw an error talking about how msmpeng.exe was stopping it from ejecting. After researching I found out that this task was windows defender.
However I have tried everything to stop this from happening to no avail, Ive gone into its settings to turn it off and yet it still runs in the background still blocking be from ejecting my hard drive, attempting to close msmpeng.exe in task manager gives me an error that I dont have permission (with no way to change this) I have then followed guides about going into edit to make a file called disablelivespywareprotection (something like that) and now Im out of answers, Am I now forced to just unplug it unsafely or something? please help
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I will try again but it would not add anything last time no matter what I tried.
@BWX,
It will add the Folder if you follow the the instructions, it is quite simple.
I did it on every machine I have.
My machines have Windows 10 Pro (Builds 19042.630 and 20262.1010).
The procedure has not changed with different windows versions.
I assume you are the Administrator user for the machine...
I will try again but it would not add anything last time no matter what I tried.
Does not work. Cannot even add the drive since it is not a folder or file or process or file type. Those are the only options. When you try to add the entire drive, it does nothing. Nothing gets selected even if I type it in manually and press enter or select.
@BWX,
Looks like you did not understand how to add it:
It is the root folder of the drive.
E:\
F:\
or other drives...
In order to add to the exclusion list, the drive must be inserted, you add a Folder then you select the drive you want to exclude and click on Select Folder and it will add it to the list.
Then you just reboot and you are done.
See screen shots below for adding Folder E:\
( F:\ was already added in this sample)
I also tried including the disk folder (E:) as you suggested, but still, Windows did not allow me to eject the hard disk. The only solution I have for this is to restart the laptop, but that is not a solution. Moreover, I am concern about what could happen with the data in the hard disk, as although I restart the computer I still have doubts if some data might be corrupted.
@Nekovolta,
The exclusion list is not effective immediately, it requires a reboot to be activated.
It only works assuming that device letter(s) are the same when you insert the external drive(s).
Also it will only be effective if MsMpEng.exe is the cause of the problem.
You will need to check the Event Viewer, Windows Logs, System and see what the message for error 225 shows.
There could be other programs or processes that prevent the ejection, in that case the exclusion from defender will not help.
It works fine for me on 6 machines at Build 19042.662 and also Development Builds 20262.1010.
I've been using the exclusion for several months even before the defender platform was updated from 4.18.2009.7-0 to 4.18.2010.7-0.
The application \Device\HarddiskVolume3\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2010.7-0**MsMpEng.exe with process id 4380 stopped the removal or ejection**for the device .....
Does not work. Cannot even add the drive since it is not a folder or file or process or file type. Those are the only options. When you try to add the entire drive, it does nothing. Nothing gets selected even if I type it in manually and press enter or select.
I also tried including the disk folder (E:) as you suggested, but still, Windows did not allow me to eject the hard disk. The only solution I have for this is to restart the laptop, but that is not a solution. Moreover, I am concern about what could happen with the data in the hard disk, as although I restart the computer I still have doubts if some data might be corrupted.
@Nekovolta,
The exclusion list is not effective immediately, it requires a reboot to be activated.
It only works assuming that device letter(s) are the same when you insert the external drive(s).
Also it will only be effective if MsMpEng.exe is the cause of the problem.
You will need to check the Event Viewer, Windows Logs, System and see what the message for error 225 shows.
There could be other programs or processes that prevent the ejection, in that case the exclusion from defender will not help.
It works fine for me on 6 machines at Build 19042.662 and also Development Builds 20262.1010.
I've been using the exclusion for several months even before the defender platform was updated from 4.18.2009.7-0 to 4.18.2010.7-0.
The application \Device\HarddiskVolume3\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2010.7-0**MsMpEng.exe with process id 4380 stopped the removal or ejection**for the device .....
