Windows can’t stop your ‘Generic volume’ device because a program is still using it
Posted by Planet Malaysia on December 26, 2007
I have received the same error message “Windows can’t stop your ‘Generic Volume’ device because it is in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and try again later.” for many many times whenever I would like to disconnect my external USB hard disk drive in Windows Vista Ultimate X64.
I'm sure I have stop accessing my USB drive, no program running on the desktop and I had tried many many solutions as suggested below:
- STOP the CNG Key Isolation services
- STOP any Antivirus software services
- STOP Defender services
- STOP Firewall services
- STOP ReadyBoost services
- Unlocker software
- Filemon
- Process Monitor from SysInternal
- USB safety remove software
The results are failed. WTH? Windows Vista! What kinds of background process that stop me? Google and googling for more than a day and still couldn't found any solution to solve this stupid problem.
Finally I found the usual solution that used to unplug the external USB manually without safety remove option. Good solution? Please tell Microsoft. Again another better solution would be restart the Windows Vista, click on 'Safety Remove Hardware" and it worked for me.
My suggestion is try option 2(restart) the box instead unplug the USB drive immediately. Hope this can help if you couldn't found any solution like me. But if anyone have a better solution, please do share with us. Thanks.
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Comments
29 Responses to “Windows can’t stop your ‘Generic volume’ device because a program is still using it”
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I use this program called unlocker 1.85
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
cannot lock current drive-Syts.Rest
I think its the Vietnamese that create these viruses. Also they disabled the system restore. chkdsk /f is disabled permanently.
What SHOULD happen when a user selects a device to Safely Remove is Windows should QUIETLY close all open file handles and flush all pending writes to the drive then say it’s OK to remove.
If Windows thinks some file(s) still in use, it should tell the user which ones. If the user knows for sure that those files are NOT open, there should be a “smack Windows upside the head” button to force it to realize the files are not in use.
But instead after years and years and several versions of Windows having USB support, we STILL get the same crap where Windows refuses to let go of things.
I was hoping this would be cured in Vista. Nope! I bet Windows 7 will still do it.
this shouldn’t even be an option. restart and then safely remove usb drive? the system should work for us not us working around the system. i mean come on now i got wait to reboot. its annoying!
wtf. yet again microsoft have released yet another OS which is incapable of safely removing usb storage devices. yes, you’ve told me its unsafe to remove. but instead of shutting down programs using the device, or at the very least listing these programs, you’ve left the investigation and grunt work up to the user.
have they not considered completing the safely remove hardware functionality. or is it too difficult to implement.
Theres also the option of optimizing it for quick removal which lets you just take it out saftly,but u do sacrifice some performance:
1) go to my computer
2) open the propeties of the drive by right clicking
3) go to the hardware section and find your drive and click properties (one of the listings is your hard drive, dont touch that, you cant do it anyways)
4) go to the policies tab of the newly open window.
5) check optimized for quick removal.
I did this on my flash drive and do not notice a major change in speed, but i never use the saftly remove and i have never lost any information
I just tried what tom suggested, but found the quick remove policies page greyed out.
I tried using an unlocker utility and it showed a program that was keeping the USB drive from being released. It was a part of Windows Media Player.
I used the unlocker to kill that process and the drive then could be safely removed.
You might check for that. It looks like WMP takes over my drive. I hate WMP and never use it, but it’s still messing with things.
For anyone having this problem, I’ve found that if you open task manager, click ‘end process’ on explorer.exe, and then click file: new task, and enter explorer.exe, you should then be able to safely remove your usb device.
I have a finding today regarding the problem on my windows XP platform. Hope this is helpful to you too.
> insert USB disk but without access it, it can be removed successfully.
> insert USB disk, if I viewed directory with picture and video in it. Then removing is always failed because the the problem “problem ejecting usb mass storage device” (even i already closed all windows).
> finally, i found the preview feature in xp cause the problem. The preview locked the file even you close the window. (need more investigation)
> solution: unregister preview of picture, video like follow, problem goes away:
unregister video (*.avi, *.wmv etc):
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
unregister picture (*.pic)
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
After that, you can still open these files using the default programmer. But they don’t lock these files after you close those applications.
Of course, using “Unlocker” tools to solve the problem is also a solution.
Jun-an Liu
I was getting this problem with a new external HDD that I just purchased. I am using Vista and the solution was that the files on the external drive were showing a preview so Windows would’nt let me remove the drive. It only happened after the file had been accessed on the external device, but all I had to do to fix it was go back into the device and change the view setting so that the preview was not being shown. I changed the view to “small icons” and then had no problem safely removing the device.
I tried Rob’s solution and the great news is that Microsoft have “fixed” that so that solution doesn’t work in Windows 7. Changing the view settings as Darren suggested doesn’t work in Windows 7 either. The best solution is to install Linux but that isn’t possible for me sadly. For those others who suggested that future versions of windows wouldn’t be able to deal with USB devices properly: You were right Windows 7 is broken as well. You would think the alleged programmers at Microslop would have some vague pride in what they do but apparently not. Ah well a reboot and then all is well.
So I bet right on Windows 7.
Why can’t MS get a clue? USB and firewire are designed for *removable* and *hot-pluggable* devices, therefore anything plugged into them ought to be released when the user wants them released.
Instead we have Windows grabbing onto files on removable devices and threatening the user with file corruption.
Tried Darren’s solution and it worked!
Thanks.
Thanks, Rob. I did what you suggested with the explore.exe, and it worked!!! Thanks, again.
As much of a Windows hater as I am, I do like windows 7, and it does run faster than XP x64. So far I haven’t come across anything I dislike (except not being able to get the OLD start menu back) besides this stupid error message. Restarting windows works because when windows restarts it closes all the handlers keeping the files locked, WTF can’t that be done when I click the button specifically designed for it!?!?! Let’s hope I don’t find too many more disappointments in Windows 7
Cheers all, and gl
wtf this is happening to me right now. oh my god this is ridiculous. i’m just trying to eject my hard drive again and again and bugger all is happening. with windows 7 goddamit. i would be so embarrassed if windows 7 was my idea you wouldn’t believe. i’d hate myself. i’d probably kill myself if i had been the dumbass who came up with windows 7. this kinda shit doesn’t happen with snow leopard. so i’m gonna shut down my computer, unplug my hard drive once it’s off, and get a mac. argh! windows just bites you in the ass all the time. rob and tom, thanks guys, but they just didn’t work.
Tom’s advice 2/18/09 is the definitive answer.
If you set to Quick Removal you only have to unplug the device, no permission needed.
WTG Tom. Thanks man!
I’ve found a solution for vista 32 bit!!!!! Just ctrl + shift + esc and end the mobilesync process then ur done
WTH…I tried all this alternatives and any worked, it’s an abuse have to restart my computer only to remove and external drive. I’m using Windows 7 64 and it’s a shit, a lot of bugs. The only way I found to remove was manually removing, risking damage my External HD.
I was finally able to “safely” remove my drive from Vista after:
-I d/l unlocker to see what had a hold on me.
-4 instances of explorer, on 1 file that I had already deleted.
-I just opened task manager, killer explorer.exe, and then restarted it.
So go either route, and you should be OK.
All you guys carrying on about windows! The safely remove hardware option is for devices that need it. USB devices are automatically set to “optimise for quick removal” which means you don’t need to use the safe unplug utility. You can just pull it. You get data corruption if you pull the device without “safely removing” only if 1. write caching is enabled (optimise for performance)and 2. there is data in the cache waiting to be written to the device.
I am using Server Standard 2008. I think this should make u guys happy though i havent tested it for XP, Vista, and Window 7.
Right click My computer -> choose Manage -> Right Click your usb Device or ext HDD -> choose offline;
You can now remove your Usb device
I just found the following trick to work in Windows 7. explorer.exe was holding a handle on the drive and nothing worked, not even killing explorer.exe. The following worked for me…
Run “diskpart” as administrator. Type “list disk”. Find the disk you want to stop in the list and note the number. Select the disk by typing “select disk N” where N is the disk number. Now, type ‘list volume’ and find the correct drive letter. Again, note the number and select the volume with ‘select volume N’. The command ‘remove all dismount’ should now stop the drive.
Anfotunetely I did wat Jonis suggested and now my I lost the Icon from Mycomputer for ever.
Please help me!
Hi!
Iam again here to say the good news: i did “Sisstem restore” and I am back to previos situation.
Reuf
@Reuf: I noticed that too after I posted here. You can get it back with diskpart. After selecting the correct disk and volume, type ‘assign letter=X’ where X is the drive letter you want the volume to use.
Cheers,
jonls
Thenk You Jonis!
I looked at the open processes with Task Manager, acroread was running although I didn’t have any open pdf docs, killed the process and my Vista let me unplug my USB disk. So maybe Apple is on the right track after all…
Here’s another strange behaviour I’m noticing on Windows 7. With my external 1TB USB plugged in, choosing to go into Computer Management would crash Explorer and restart it.
Why would I go there? Here’s why. I found out that assuming you can change a drive letter, that drive will not be recognised by your Windows 7, and thus will be finally safe for unplugging. And it always work.
Anyway the problem I have above is one of the reasons why Windows blows.