The Device 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later

Question

I am getting the following error on a 320 GB Western Digital external HDD that has 250 GB of music, and I can't eject it with the safely remove hardware icon.

The device 'generic voluyme' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later

How do I solve this issue or is there is another way to remove the drive without compromising my files? I am running Windows XP.

Solution 1

You can try to Logoff then login again. That works for me. The 2nd+ login of the day doesn't take nearly the amount of time the 1st login does.

• power tip, no warranties.

If you have admin privileges, you can try this.

Download a program called procexp. Process Explorer will allow you to search for open handles to the drive. kill the process that has drive open.

Solution 2

A simpler solution:

Instead of using the tray icon for ejecting drive, go to My Computer, right click on the drive and select "Eject".

Works in most of the cases because it forces any programs using the drive to stop usage.

Comments

[Psycogeek]

do a shut-down and remove it while it is shut-down, a shutdown or a restart will force a cache flush. In XP the program "fileMon" (system externals) could give you clues as to what is still working with the drive. Close all the windows that might be open to it including requesters & or programs that might be open to it. stop or complete any thumbnailing or indexing that might be occuring to the drive, or just wait till it is fully completed, indexing can take time with a lot of small files. Disable the disk item in the device manager, it also forces a cache flush before departure. 101ways

[ricastro]

Do you happen to be listening to any of the music on the drive as you try to eject? Or perhaps do you have your media program open?

[K. Rmth]

This answer might be related to your question.

[Aganju]

For hard disks, this is not an option. Works only for USB sticks