Why can't my external hard disk be safely removed?

[yalamo]

On WinXP SP2, I have an external hard disk, which I use for backup.

When disconnecting the hard disk, I want to do the proper thing, and I click on the icon in the system tray that says "Safely Remove Hardware". Usually what happens after I go through the process of stopping the devices, I get a window that says "The device 'Generic Volume" cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later."

Obviously, waiting till later doesn't change anything. It still won't budge. This doesn't happen all the time, but I would say, 90% of the time. If I just disregard the warning and unplug the device, everything seems fine.

As far as I can tell, nothing is reading or writing to the external hard disk. Is there any way of finding out why this is is happening? Can someone tell me how to get rid of this troublesome warning?

 

[ski]

Are there any programs on that HD that are currently opened when you try to remove it?
Did you connect the HD internally to see if it works there?

 

[kestrel1]

I have had a similar problem. I changed the cable & this seemed to help. Not had any problems since, touch wood.

 

[yalamo]

ski, there are no programs on the external HD open when I try to turn it off. I have deliberately turned off Google Desktop and even Windows Explorer, before I try to stop the external HD, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't make any difference.

As I said, sometimes it does get stopped by pressing on that little "Safely Remove" icon, but 90% of the time it doesn't. But closing the HD externally (it has a switch) doesn't seem to cause any problems (it shouldn't, if nothing is trying to read or write the HD), so I'm living with that.

kestrel1, it could be the cable, although I'll never know why - the cable is short, and brand new.

Any other suggestions?

 

[kestrel1]

I didn't think it was the cable, as mine was new. Does the cable have a supresser knob (if you know what I mean) not even sure if that is the correct name to be honest.
A cable I used did & this caused the problem, I think.