How do you disconnect a USB drive when getting a "this device is currently in use"?

My daughter had her thumb drive plugged into my desktop, doing some work. She finished, logged off of her account and I logged into mine. I noticed that she left her thumb drive in the USB port, and so I tried to safely eject it, but I get the following message:

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.

OK, I give up. I just logged into my account and the first thing I did was try to eject her thumb drive. What in heck is currently using it? I don't have anything else opened/running when I got that message. How do I determine what program is apparently running and doing whatever it is, against that USB drive? How do I get whatever it is, to stop so I can safely disconnect the thing?

Rod

Posted 2012-02-08T01:03:29.700

Reputation: 1 305

Answers

You can use Unlocker to find out what program has it opened, then close that program. If you cannot exit the program, you can use Unlocker to force the handle closed.

Unlocker showing processes with open handles

If it is Windows Explorer, you can restart it. En easy way is to hold Control + Shift and right-click a blank area in the Start menu:

Restarting Explorer in Windows 7

Synetech

Posted 2012-02-08T01:03:29.700

Reputation: 63 242

I edited this answer to point to the portable version hosted on Softpedia. "Several optional and usually unwanted software programs may be offered during the installation process. This can only be avoided by being careful not to click on the 'next' or 'install' buttons when the text reads e.g.: by clicking 'next' you agree to .... Instead the left button which is usually labelled cancel has to be chosen in order to continue with the regular installation." See http://deletedwikipedia.gawker-labs.com/wiki/Unlocker

– Marc.2377 – 2016-07-03T03:10:35.647

So how do you get the "exit explorer" context menu? – Moab – 2012-02-08T03:05:41.193

Oops, sorry. Fixed. (I don’t use that method; the few times I actually had to restart Explorer in Win7, I used an option called “Restart Explorer”. I can’t figure out where it is right now—I’m in XP at the moment—but next time I’m in 7, I’ll see if I can find it and add it as well. And no, it was not a third-party one that used taskkill, it was built-in, to my surprise—ie, Microsoft basically acknowledging the need to restart Explorer.) – Synetech – 2012-02-08T03:11:37.893

+1 for the "Exit Explorer" option. Much easier than opening Task Manger and finding the process. – Sonic42 – 2012-02-08T05:05:43.807

1After exit of explorer using context menu, how do you get explorer to reload? ctrl+alt+del twice allows you to open task manager to do it, so it seems better to use task manager to exit explorer in the first place. – Moab – 2012-02-08T17:49:34.777

It doesn’t reload automatically? It should, that’s part of Explorer (and there’s no point in building in an option to kill Explorer without it restarting). Check the task-manager to see if there are other instances. I find that when there is more than one instance of Explorer.exe the auto-restart function gets blocked (or at most opens an actual Explorer window instead of just the desktop). – Synetech – 2012-02-08T18:00:04.523

if everything here fails, might as well reboot. it was my case. something with using USB hub and windows not able to handle the motherboard power. – cregox – 2012-05-22T19:33:30.240

Anything that works with Windows 8.1? Unlocker portable does not work at all (nothing happens after running it), I also tried IOBit Unlocker (portable), which claims my USB drive is not locked, but Windows disagrees. – David Balažic – 2014-01-01T23:41:34.967

@DavidBalažic, have you tried the installed version? You could also try Handles or Process Explorer. If no open handles are being reported, then it could be open by a driver instead of by a program. In that case, you need to make sure to run the program (e.g., Process Explorer) as admin to see it.

– Synetech – 2014-01-02T00:05:59.527

The key is to identify the process that has a directory open on the device you need to unmount (I've used the following on Windows 7).

A search for warning Event ID 225 from Kernel-PnP in Windows Logs / System log file should find a message of the form "(something) stopped the removal or ejection for the device (something)".

This is already explained in the post:

Access "Computer Management" (right-click "Computer" / "Manage")

System tools -> Event viewer -> Windows Logs -> System

Use 'Find' to search for the event ID.

You can also install Process Explorer to perform a search for the process or application:

Use that utility to search for a handle with the target drive letter (for example f: ), available under Find / Find handle or DLL ... That will help identify the offending process / PID, (similar to use of 'lsof' command under Linux), and the process can be stopped manually (e.g. using Task Manager or Process Explorer). You may need to run Process Explorer as Administrator if you are not the owner of the process.

I've found that some apps keep the directory open, even after a file has been saved and closed. Sometimes it is enough to open another file from your C: drive to reset the "current" directory for the app. Also, apps may still be running after the window has been closed. The searches above will help identify which app you need to stop.

asl_marc

Posted 2012-02-08T01:03:29.700

Reputation: 21

The system log is the only method that pointed out my anti-virus (NOD32) as the culprit, since Process Explorer and other programs can't "spy" on it. – Chema – 2019-04-09T04:27:14.003

Microsoft has its own utility called Devcon.exe.

From the site:

DevCon (Devcon.exe), the Device Console, is a command-line tool that displays detailed information about devices on computers running Windows. You can use DevCon to enable, disable, install, configure, and remove devices.

DevCon runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.

zundarz

Posted 2012-02-08T01:03:29.700

Reputation: 1 075