external hard drive removal

  • Thread starter Thread starter ohstr
  • Start date Start date
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ohstr

Hello,
I recently purchased a HP pavillion computer and hooked up to it an
external hard drive that I had used with success on my previous
computer. Now when I need to safely remove hardware from the computer
when I want to shut it down - I receive a message that the Generic
device can not be safely removed - try later. I tried later yesterday
for about four hours off and on - I eventually shut the computer down
and left the drive running. What should I do in order to fix this
message and situation. I had no trouble removing/shutting down with
the old machine, and I had a feeling that the old computer was fading
fast. Any help that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ohstr
 
ohstr said:
Hello,
I recently purchased a HP pavillion computer and hooked up to it an
external hard drive that I had used with success on my previous
computer. Now when I need to safely remove hardware from the computer
when I want to shut it down - I receive a message that the Generic
device can not be safely removed - try later. I tried later yesterday
for about four hours off and on - I eventually shut the computer down
and left the drive running. What should I do in order to fix this
message and situation. I had no trouble removing/shutting down with
the old machine, and I had a feeling that the old computer was fading
fast. Any help that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ohstr
Click to expand...

Some of the external hard drives require a file to be put
into the computer. Is this one of them and was the file
installed? The otherwise solution is to turn off the computer,
then turn off the external drive and remove it.
 
Ghostrider said:
Some of the external hard drives require a file to be put
into the computer. Is this one of them and was the file
installed? The otherwise solution is to turn off the computer,
then turn off the external drive and remove it.
Click to expand...

In addition to what Ghostrider said, make sure that Windows Explorer or no
other programs are open when you try to shut down the USB drive.

Don't just turn off the computer, make sure that you properly shut it down
so that all cache information will flush to the appropriate files on the
various hard drives.
If the shutdown hangs, you may see a program or filename there (failed to
close statement) and this could be what is hanging the hard drive
disconnect.
 
ohstr said:
Hello,
I recently purchased a HP pavillion computer and hooked up to it an
external hard drive that I had used with success on my previous
computer. Now when I need to safely remove hardware from the computer
when I want to shut it down - I receive a message that the Generic
device can not be safely removed - try later. I tried later yesterday
for about four hours off and on - I eventually shut the computer down
and left the drive running. What should I do in order to fix this
message and situation. I had no trouble removing/shutting down with
the old machine, and I had a feeling that the old computer was fading
fast. Any help that anyone could give me would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem a few days ago. I finally "solved" it by
throwing caution to the winds and simply turning off my external
drive. Everything *seems* to be OK now. Here's my theory
(i.e., guess) on what caused the problem: I think I may have
dragged some files on my external drive to my desktop Recycle Bin
and then failed to empty the Recycle Bin before shutting down my
external drive. XP let me shut down and "safely remove" my external
drive with the files I deleted from it still in the Recycle Bin, and I think
the "can not be safely removed - try later" message may have
occurred the *next time* I tried to shut down and remove my
external drive. Could that have been what caused your problem?

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
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