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#16
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:07:29 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote: On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:05:02 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:37:04 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote: As I mentioned, when a USB device sticks, I just pull the plug anyway. Never had a problem doing that. Try it next time it happens to you. No thanks. I'm (usually) too paranoid. What I decided to do about EaseUS's propensity to lock the drive was to uninstall it. That was earlier this month, but I didn't mention it in my first post. I'll also look at UnLock IT that Jeff Layman mentioned in this thread. I guess I'll have to reinstall EaseUS to try it :-) I had to laugh at the last sentence I wrote above. I'll bet you know who Jeff layman is :-) Nice. I've done that. :-) -- Char Jackson |
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#17
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On 10/16/2012 5:07 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:05:02 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:37:04 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote: As I mentioned, when a USB device sticks, I just pull the plug anyway. Never had a problem doing that. Try it next time it happens to you. No thanks. I'm (usually) too paranoid. What I decided to do about EaseUS's propensity to lock the drive was to uninstall it. That was earlier this month, but I didn't mention it in my first post. I'll also look at UnLock IT that Jeff Layman mentioned in this thread. I guess I'll have to reinstall EaseUS to try it :-) I had to laugh at the last sentence I wrote above. I'll bet you know who Jeff layman is :-) Recently, I did have problems with USB memory sticks similar to those in this thread. When all was said and done. On a multiple file bulk write by a vendor, the last file might not be complete as to data in the file, or table entries for the file. On initial plug in to a USB port, Win 7 might offer to "repair" the memory stick. What seemed to be the cause? The stick was written with XP, and pulled when XP showed the write was complete without going thru the safe to remove process. If I remember correctly, there are HD related "speed up" options that might have been in effect. Directly or indirectly, these may have been involved. Normally, when I have USB memory stick problems, it's either a flaky memory stick, or poor connections to the USB port. |
#18
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On 16/10/2012 21:12, VanguardLH wrote:
"Jeff Layman" wrote: Win7HPx64. "Windows can't stop your "XXXXX USB device" because a program is still using it. Close any programs that might be using the device, and then try again later" I see this message far too often. Sometimes, it's a simple matter - the last thing I used a File Manager for before closing it was to examine the files on a memory stick or external hard disk. I just open it again, and look at the files on something else, such as the internal HD. Then the USB device can be ejected. Sometimes that doesn't work, and nothing else does, and I just pull the plug. Doesn't seem to do any damage. Is there anywhere (eg Administrative Tools) where you can find out what Win7 /thinks/ is still using the USB device? Seems a bit of a pointless message otherwise. You mention ejecting the USB drive. You never mentioned trying to first stop it. Do you stop the USB drive /BEFORE/ you try to eject it? No. Just googled how to do that. I'll try it, but I'm not convinced it will work as if Windows itself can't stop it automatically, I'm not sure I will be able to do any better. Did you choose to include your USB drive in Windows Search service (which means the searchindexer.exe process might be accessing that drive)? If so, do you need to index the files (and perhaps their content) on that drive? If you only need to index the files on that drive, don't have Windows Search indexing on the contents of those files. I turned off Windows Search the day I got Win7. The service has also been disabled, so there is no chance of it trying to access the USB drive. -- Jeff |
#19
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On 16/10/2012 22:07, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:05:02 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote: On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:37:04 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote: As I mentioned, when a USB device sticks, I just pull the plug anyway. Never had a problem doing that. Try it next time it happens to you. No thanks. I'm (usually) too paranoid. What I decided to do about EaseUS's propensity to lock the drive was to uninstall it. That was earlier this month, but I didn't mention it in my first post. I'll also look at UnLock IT that Jeff Layman mentioned in this thread. I guess I'll have to reinstall EaseUS to try it :-) I had to laugh at the last sentence I wrote above. I'll bet you know who Jeff layman is :-) Not sure, but he keeps signing the emails I send... :-) -- Jeff |
#20
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:45:42 -0400, charlie wrote:
[snip] Recently, I did have problems with USB memory sticks similar to those in this thread. When all was said and done. On a multiple file bulk write by a vendor, the last file might not be complete as to data in the file, or table entries for the file. On initial plug in to a USB port, Win 7 might offer to "repair" the memory stick. What seemed to be the cause? The stick was written with XP, and pulled when XP showed the write was complete without going thru the safe to remove process. If I remember correctly, there are HD related "speed up" options that might have been in effect. Directly or indirectly, these may have been involved. Normally, when I have USB memory stick problems, it's either a flaky memory stick, or poor connections to the USB port. I have had (and posted about) problems with memory sticks. Usually, I copy XP to 7 and only occasionally the other way around. I am very careful about unmounting. I still see the problem from time to time. The trouble is in clusters. It will be fine, fine, fine, and suddenly, many times, I see the repair offer. There is rarely any problem detected. At the suggestion of technical support for my memory stick, I reformatted. That did not cure the problem. Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko |
#21
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their
ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. |
#22
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:53:41 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. Thanks for that info. ProcMon generates so much output that it intimidated me - and I never discovered the above. Which I'm saving. -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#23
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
VanguardLH wrote:
While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. It's handles to files that prevent dismounting, rather than file I/O. The handle is a safer criterion, as it avoids a race condition on a program attempting a write() just as the file system is being dismounted. It means fewer fragments. And helps with the less protected file systems, such as FAT32. Paul |
#24
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
"Gene E. Bloch" wrote:
On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:53:41 -0500, VanguardLH wrote: While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. Thanks for that info. ProcMon generates so much output that it intimidated me - and I never discovered the above. Which I'm saving. I used to use their RegMon and FileMon and still prefer the separated functionality. Then they merged it into ProcMon and removed the downloads for RegMon and FileMon. So I eventually bit the bullet and figured out how to use ProcMon as best as I could. I took awhile for me to even realize the 4 toolbar buttons that toggle what type of monitoring is performed: Show registry activity Show file system activity Show network activity Show process and thread activity Show profiling events Typically all I use are the registry and file monitoring. I have other tools for monitoring network activity. I'm not wizard enough to know how the process and thread activity would help me and haven't a clue what they mean by profiling events. Eventually I figured out how to modify the filtering. I could, for example, add a drive and folder path in a Path rule when I wanted to find out what was accessing that folder or files within it. I've also use the Process Name filter when I want to see what a particular program is accessing. But there's a ton of features and uses for this program that I haven't touched nor understand. |
#25
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
"Paul" wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. It's handles to files that prevent dismounting, rather than file I/O. File and directory queries don't require opening files. Deletes are (or should be) performed after you already used CloseHandle. From ProcMon's help: File System Process Monitor displays file system activity for all Windows file systems, including local storage and remote file systems. CreateFile (which creates a file handle) is also a file system activity. If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive? |
#26
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:07:04 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
"Gene E. Bloch" wrote: ProcMon generates so much output that it intimidated me - and I never discovered the above. Which I'm saving. I used to use their RegMon and FileMon and still prefer the separated functionality. Then they merged it into ProcMon and removed the downloads for RegMon and FileMon. So I eventually bit the bullet and figured out how to use ProcMon as best as I could. I took awhile for me to even realize the 4 toolbar buttons that toggle what type of monitoring is performed: Show registry activity Show file system activity Show network activity Show process and thread activity Show profiling events Someone's probably going to ask how they got 5 kinds of monitoring into 4 buttons. -- Linspired Hey, you, get off of my cloud. |
#27
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
"Jeremy Lin fan" wrote:
On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:07:04 -0500, VanguardLH wrote: "Gene E. Bloch" wrote: ProcMon generates so much output that it intimidated me - and I never discovered the above. Which I'm saving. I used to use their RegMon and FileMon and still prefer the separated functionality. Then they merged it into ProcMon and removed the downloads for RegMon and FileMon. So I eventually bit the bullet and figured out how to use ProcMon as best as I could. I took awhile for me to even realize the 4 toolbar buttons that toggle what type of monitoring is performed: Show registry activity Show file system activity Show network activity Show process and thread activity Show profiling events Someone's probably going to ask how they got 5 kinds of monitoring into 4 buttons. That would be you. Okay, a typo. It's 5 toolbar buttons. Hey, the 5 key is right next to the 4 key. I type pretty fast and my fingers don't always obey. |
#28
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
VanguardLH wrote:
"Paul" wrote: VanguardLH wrote: While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. It's handles to files that prevent dismounting, rather than file I/O. File and directory queries don't require opening files. Deletes are (or should be) performed after you already used CloseHandle. From ProcMon's help: File System Process Monitor displays file system activity for all Windows file systems, including local storage and remote file systems. CreateFile (which creates a file handle) is also a file system activity. If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive? CreateFile returns an open handle. The text here suggests "CloseHandle" when done with it. This is no different than doing something like fopen(). http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa914735.aspx A handle is a persistent object, and we'd be concerned about things like that which can have a half-written file in progress. Waiting for a handle to close, means the application has either abandoned a file it was writing, or it has committed it. Any operation which is transient, or is handled entirely by the file system (say, writing to the MFT), isn't of as much concern, as when a process or application has a half-written file sitting there. Serialization can be applied to stuff the file system controls. (Which means, it doesn't dismount the file system, until it's stopped modifying the MFT.) So Handle or Process Explorer (with Handle program functions built-in) is the tool to use. Paul |
#29
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
"Paul" wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: "Paul" wrote: VanguardLH wrote: While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. It's handles to files that prevent dismounting, rather than file I/O. File and directory queries don't require opening files. Deletes are (or should be) performed after you already used CloseHandle. From ProcMon's help: File System Process Monitor displays file system activity for all Windows file systems, including local storage and remote file systems. CreateFile (which creates a file handle) is also a file system activity. If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive? CreateFile returns an open handle. The text here suggests "CloseHandle" when done with it. This is no different than doing something like fopen(). http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa914735.aspx A handle is a persistent object, and we'd be concerned about things like that which can have a half-written file in progress. Waiting for a handle to close, means the application has either abandoned a file it was writing, or it has committed it. Any operation which is transient, or is handled entirely by the file system (say, writing to the MFT), isn't of as much concern, as when a process or application has a half-written file sitting there. Serialization can be applied to stuff the file system controls. (Which means, it doesn't dismount the file system, until it's stopped modifying the MFT.) So Handle or Process Explorer (with Handle program functions built-in) is the tool to use. So we're in agreement regarding created/open file handles. Okay, so what happens to a dismount when there still exists file system activity OTHER than file handles that were created before and are lingering around but are NOT part of the current file system activity, like when "file system activity" consistutes just queries and deletes? That's the reason why some folks mentioned looking at file indexing (which only looks at files and not their contents) which could keep a volume from getting dismounted. I was wondering if a volume with current activity (and no open file handles) could block an eject. You'd *think* the mount manager would go ahead and dismount the volume (again, with one having no currently open file handles) with the result any processes that were attempting [non-write] file system activity would get errors (volume not accessible) but maybe not hence my question "If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive?" |
#30
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"Problem ejecting USB mass storage device"
"VanguardLH" wrote:
"Paul" wrote: VanguardLH wrote: "Paul" wrote: VanguardLH wrote: While SysInternals' Process Explorer has been mentioned, I think their ProcMon would be better suited. You can filter its captured output to just show file accesses and even designated the Path to have the drive letter of the USB-attached drive. Then try to Stop and then Eject the USB drive and see what might still be accessing the drive. It's handles to files that prevent dismounting, rather than file I/O. File and directory queries don't require opening files. Deletes are (or should be) performed after you already used CloseHandle. From ProcMon's help: File System Process Monitor displays file system activity for all Windows file systems, including local storage and remote file systems. CreateFile (which creates a file handle) is also a file system activity. If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive? CreateFile returns an open handle. The text here suggests "CloseHandle" when done with it. This is no different than doing something like fopen(). http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa914735.aspx A handle is a persistent object, and we'd be concerned about things like that which can have a half-written file in progress. Waiting for a handle to close, means the application has either abandoned a file it was writing, or it has committed it. Any operation which is transient, or is handled entirely by the file system (say, writing to the MFT), isn't of as much concern, as when a process or application has a half-written file sitting there. Serialization can be applied to stuff the file system controls. (Which means, it doesn't dismount the file system, until it's stopped modifying the MFT.) So Handle or Process Explorer (with Handle program functions built-in) is the tool to use. So we're in agreement regarding created/open file handles. Okay, so what happens to a dismount when there still exists file system activity OTHER than file handles that were created before and are lingering around but are NOT part of the current file system activity, like when "file system activity" consistutes just queries and deletes? That's the reason why some folks mentioned looking at file indexing (which only looks at files and not their contents) which could keep a volume from getting dismounted. I was wondering if a volume with current activity (and no open file handles) could block an eject. You'd *think* the mount manager would go ahead and dismount the volume (again, with one having no currently open file handles) with the result any processes that were attempting [non-write] file system activity would get errors (volume not accessible) but maybe not hence my question "If the *file system* isn't quiescent, can you eject the drive?" I did an experiment (but I only had Windows XP at home where I was when I ran the test). I copied a ton of folders and files onto a USB thumb drive (drive f). I had the "Safely Remove Hardware" wizard on screen. In a command shell, I ran "dir f: /s". With the large number for folders and files to run through, the 'dir' command would take awhile. While the 'dir' was running, I attempted to stop the USB device in the "Safely Remove Hardware" wizard but got the following error popup: The device 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later. Then I tried to eject the drive without first stopping it while running the 'dir' command again and got: 'Remove Disk (F' is currently in use. If you eject this disk now, you may lose data in any open files. Before ejecting the disk, make sure that all files are closed and no multimedia files (such as music or video) are playing. Cancel Try Again Continue I had the option to Continue but the 'dir' finished before I had a chance to click on it. In any case, a read-only command generating lots of file system activity was causing the drive to be in use and interferring with a dismount. |
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