Exception Error message when I try to "Safely Remove Hardware"

[kymikee]

When I left click on the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon on my taskbar and select safely remove hardware, after a few seconds I am getting the following error:

|-RUNDLL-----------------------------------------|
|An Exception occurred while trying to |
|run "shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll" |
|--------------------------------------------------|
OK

Thus I can't pull any of my USB sticks out of any of my USB ports by shutting them down first. I either have to just pull them out and hope I don't break them (I did kill one of my USB sticks in another PC a couple of weeks ago and don't want to continue doing this) OR just shut down XP.

I am on XP Pro SP2. My hard drive is partitioned to drives C and D. My CD/DVD drive is drive G: and a USB hooked up printer with a storage option is drive F:.

Let me know if anyone can tell me what this error message means and how to solve it.

 

[linney]

Are you using any Acronis software?

Error removing USB devices after cloning

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=176066&page=5

http://www.google.com/search?q="she...-au&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

[goombawaho]

Running SFC /SCANNOW is always a good place to start followed by a reboot.

 

[kymikee]

I AM using Acronis software. I have the trial versions (Which have expired) installed of Acronis True Image Home and Acronis Disk Director Suite. I'll uninstall them now and see if that fixes the problem. Thanks!!!

 

[mscallisto]

There is a way to safely remove usb sticks without using the "safely remove hardware" icon.

with the usb drive mounted
In the control panel
Double Click the system icon
Click Hardware tab
Click Device manager
Expand the disk drives (click the + sign)
Right mouse the usb flash drive entry
Click properties
Click Policies tab
Choose the radio button that "optimizes for quick removal"

This disables write caching so you can disconnect with safe removal.

Note by doing this you may slow the devices performance a bit.

sam

 

[kymikee]

One other thing that the Acronis post has made me think of: This hard drive that I have was created (C: and D: Drive) by doing a copy using the Acronis software. Is this a common occurance??

 

[kymikee]

Ok, thanks for the note mscallisto. I've done this and will try removing the USB Stick and see what happens

 

[kymikee]

Sorry, I meant to say that it was just a C: drive and I cloned it into one of the partitions (C: drive) on another Hard Disk. I made a D: drive on the new Hard Disk also

 

[linney]

Try your Acronis questions here if you get no feedback.

http://forum.acronis.com/