Unable to remove USB device

[insighter]

Hello,

For quite some time I have been unable to to eject any USB/external hard drive devices that I have plugged into my computer. Using Process Explorer I've looked at the processes that are interfering with being to be able to eject devices.

Even if I do not have any files or programs open from that device, each one will have two explorer.exe processes running. However when I use find handle with Process Explorer on my main external hard drive there are these several processes running.

System I:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLog.blf
System I:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLogContainer00000000000000000001
System I:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Txf
System I:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLogContainer00000000000000000002
svchost I:\System Volume Information\tracking.log
svchost I:\$Extend\$ObjId
explorer.exe I:\
explorer.exe I:\

I am able to Close Handle on the explorer and svchost processes, but when I try on the system ones I get an error message reading, "Error opening process: the handle is invalid".

It's very annoying to have to shut my comp down every time I want to eject. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[das_stig]

Tell the recycle bin not to save files deleted for this drive.

 

[insighter]

This might be helpful, but it didn't solve my immediate problem because all the processes I posted above are still interfering with my external. I also don't see how a property of the recycle bin would intefere with every USB stick that I put into my computer.

 

[mmortal03]

I've had the same problem, and I've recently discovered that restarting the "Server" service (which will generally require Windows to also restart the dependent "Computer Browser" service and possibly the "HomeGroup Listener" service at the same time) has allowed me to then safely remove the drive. I don't know if this is actually safe to do or not, but it does work in a pinch.

 

[_gh0st_]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this has any side effects, so use at your own risk.

On
http://www.mydefrag.com/FAQSpecialFiles-HowDoIDefragmentCExtendRmMetadataTxfLogTopsTDATA.html
you can read "This is a special NTFS system file used by the Windows Transactional Resource Manager."

And on
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621564.aspx
you can read "stops a Transactional Resource Manager"

So open a console window with admin rights and type
fsutil resource stop D:\

Where you replace D:\ with the letter of drive you want to eject.
Then eject the drive.

You can use this to get a list of open files:
http://serverfault.com/questions/1966/how-do-you-find-what-process-is-holding-a-file-open-in-windows

 

[gonzalo76]

Two things that could be causing the problem is System Restore and Indexing. Do you have either or both set for you HDD?

YESSSSSS!!!!
I tried EVERYTHING to solve my problem until I read Cato's post.
I disabled System Restore and also Recycle Bin since Indexing was already disabled.
Recycle Bin: to eliminate deleted things directly instead of "moving it" to the recycle bin.

Now I can "safety remove" my 3 USB WD My Book

Thank you very much 😉

Good luck!