This carries no risk for the drive hardware, but it does put your data at a small risk. This way there is only a slim chance that the partition will be corrupted by a removal. Just turn off the hard drive or disconnect it at your convenience whenever the hard drive is not busy transferring data. If so, the hard drive does not need to be Safely Removed manually from the system. Check whether the drive is set to Optimize for Quick Removal.Double-click on the hard drive's model number.Step 5: In Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000, please follow these directions: Close all programs and any open files or windows displaying the drive contents and attempt to remove the drive again. Step 4: Other software like antivirus programs, or any programs or image files that remain open on the drive (even Windows Explorer if its window is open and displaying the contents of the external drive) can prevent safe removal. If your Windows Recycle bin on the desktop has an 'N' with a shield, then Norton is running a special software on your system.

Step 3: If you have Norton System Works installed, the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the System Tray will not work with the external drive because of the Norton Protected Recycle Bin.

This option may not be available in Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Put a check in the Do not move files to the Recycle Bin checkbox.ĭisabling the Recycle Bin will cause deleted files to be permanently deleted immediately.

Select the USB drive letter tab on the top.

Select Configure drives independently (instead of Use one setting for all drives).

Right-click on the Recycle Bin on the desktop.

Step 2: A process that can hold up the drive is explorer.exe. This is because of the Windows Recycle Bin. If the problem follows the drive, then continue troubleshooting. If the problem does not repeat itself on the second computer, then it might well be system-related. Step 1: Try the drive on another computer so as to attempt to isolate the problem. This document will explore several possible resolutions for the problem. It is always considered a safe removal to shut down/reboot the computer and turn off/disconnect the drive while the computer's power is down, but that is not always a convenient solution. When you cannot safely remove a drive successfully, the cause is usually a program that is trying to read from the drive.

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