Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

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Author:

junxiu li MVP

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SUMMARY

When you click the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the system tray to remove hardware, you may receive an error message and can not remove it successfully.

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SYMPTOMS

When you click the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the system tray to remove hardware, you may receive the following error message:

Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

The device ‘Generic volume’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.

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CAUSE

This behavior can occur there are open handles with any files in the USB Mass Storage Device are in use by another program.

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RESOLUTION

Follow these steps to resolve the problem:

1. Download a free utility from a third-party Web site at the following address:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

2. Click Find, Find Handle or DLL in the tool menu.

•    Type the drive letter of the USB device in the Handle or DLL substring textbox, and press Search Button.
•    Find the process and its PID in the following box.
•    In system process tree view, find the process according to the Find Handle or DLL dialog box.
•    Press Ctrl + H to show Handles in Lower Pane View.
•    Find the File according with the drive letter , and right click it, choose Close Handle.

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