Fix: Cant Eject External Hard Drive on Windows - Complete guide

Here we will teach you how to fix not being able to eject the external hard drive on Windows.

A message such as "This device is currently in use" may pop up when trying to eject an external hard disk from a Windows computer. The most frequent cause of this problem is when Windows detects a background process or application still accessing the drive, even when it appears as though nothing is open.

The most probable suspects are the background processes, such as indexing of files, or the scanning done by the antivirus software. open files or applications that have not actually been closed; also, a bug within the system drivers may be the reasons for the same.  

Please follow the following steps given below in the same order to avoid the problem.

1. Reboot your System

Restart your computer first. You cannot safely remove the external drive due to temporary issues or background procedures. Once you restart your computer, it will kill all applications and system services and thus clean any possible lock on the drive. 

2. Check Hard Drive policy

In order to fix eject issues, change the "Removal Policy" to "Better Performance" so Windows will handle data transfers to the external drive more efficiently. When changed to this setting, Windows utilizes write caching in order to speed up procedures as well as large files.

Press the Windows Key while pressing the X key. Click on Device Manager.

Find the Drive you want to eject by expanding the "Disk Drives" section. Choosing an Updated Policy

To pop out a drive, right-click it in the System Tray and click the "Properties" menu item. 

Click the "Policies" menu and choose "Better Performance". 

Choosing Policy 

To check whether you can unplug the drive or not, simply restart your PC.

3. Via Safely Remove Hardware utility

Clicking on "Safely Remove Hardware" instructs the computer to shut down all running applications that are connected with the external device. It shuts down the disk from surreptitiously running operations at the back and finishes saving up opened or unsaved files. 

Click the "Windows + R" keys simultaneously to open the Run app.

Now, type the following shortcut:-Shoulder32.dll, Control_RunDLL, and RunDll32.exe; hotplug.dllUsing the Service

Doing this will bring up the Safely Remove Hardware program.

To eject a drive, simply select it and click on the "Stop" button.

Eject Hard Drive Safely

Additional information: Please check if the problem is still recurring.

4. Running Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter of Windows

Any available problems that may cause blocking of safe ejection should be detected and corrected by the built-in Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter in Windows. It would check if a driver conflict, hardware failure, or some wrongly configured settings of your computer keep the disk in use. 

Press Windows Key + I to open Settings.

For safety, click on Update.Improvement and Security

Go to the Troubleshoot section.

Go to the bottom of the page and search "Hardware and devices".

Just select it and click the "Run the troubleshooter" button.Running the Device and Hardware Troubleshooter

5. Eject Drive via Disk Management

It is an inbuilt tool in Windows for managing disks, which you can easily manage your drives with. Labeling the disk "offline" after using this tool instantly makes Windows disconnect from the external disk. You can safely remove the HDD afterwards, since no background jobs or processes will be using it anymore. 

Type "Disk Management" into the Start menu and press the Enter key.

Locate the external hard disk you want to eject.  

Press and hold the "Eject" button on your external hard disk.Using Disk Management to Eject an External Drive  

Note:

So, remember that when you eject the external hard disk, it will come up as offline; next time you want to access that drive in your computer, flip that status to Online via Disk Management.

Installation of New USB Drivers

Ejection errors can also occur if Windows is unable to load drivers for correct interpretation of the device's status. Hence, updating drivers will help the user in avoiding such issues. In this manner, both the system and the external drives can smoothly communicate with each other. 

To access the Device Manager, head to the Start Menu, searching for Device Manager.

The Universal Serial Bus controllers list should be expanded.

Check if there is any yellow exclamation on any entry. If yes, then you can update the driver software by right-clicking on it and choosing the option.

If you don't see an exclamation point, you can try removing the driver, then automatically reinstall it by restarting your computer.

That is all you need to know about the Fix: Can't Eject External Hard Drive on Windows so that we at iLounge can be of the utmost help.