Windows – External HDD is always in use when trying to safely remove

external hard drivesafely-remove-hardwareusbwindows 7

I have a WD 1TB Elements external hard drive, and every time I use the Windows 7 "safely remove" feature, it gives me a dialog telling that a process is using the disk.

Using Sysinternals Process Explorer and the answer on this Can Windows tell me what is using my USB drive? question, I get the following result:

Process Explorer "find" results

Process: System, PID: 4, Type: File, Names starting with E:\$Extend\$RmMetadata\$Txf

What is the $Extend folder and why is it in use? How can I disable it? I cannot remove it using the command line (access denied).

Edit: I've followed the instructions over here on Microsoft TechNet, and under the registry key

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup

I have a multi-string value named IgnoreNTFS with data \$Extend\* /s.

But this does not make any difference. Also, this question is not about a server.

Additionally I can tell that I use a program called mkv2vob to convert video files with a Matroska container into something my PS3 will play. I convert the source files straight from my external HDD, but I would expect if this program does not release the lock on the HDD, surely it cannot be locked if the process isn't even running?

Best Answer

As explained by Rook in this answer: https://superuser.com/a/674255/142560

To safely remove the drive:

  1. Open Command Prompt (cmd.exe).
  2. Type diskpart.
  3. Type list disk.
  4. Find your disk #, and type select disk [number here].
  5. Type offline disk.

You should be able to remove it now.

Next time you plug it in, it won't be automatically mounted. So either use the command prompt again to make it online, or:

  1. Run diskmgmt.msc.
  2. Find the disk, right click, and choose "Online".
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