Windows 7 Can't "safely" eject my external hard drive; mounted as fixed drive

[decktrio]

I have this problem with Windows 7 from time to time, and I finally want to find out the correct solution.

Sometimes when Im done using a USB hard drive, and I've closed all applications saving to it (or copying from it), I can't eject the drive. I get an error message: "Windows can't stop your 'Generic volume' because a program is still using it. Close any programs that might still be using the device, and then try again later."

When I look up the drive using fsutil...

>fsutil fsinfo drive E:
E: - Fixed Drive

Does anyone know why this happens? Or more importantly, does anyone know how to change the drive type back to removable, when it does happen?

 

[Saltgrass]

One thing you might look at is the Device Manager. When the drive is connected, you should see it listed so you can right click and look at the properties. On the Policies tab, there should be an option concerning Write Caching. Changing that setting might help.

But you are sure nothing is looking at it, like explorer, or any utility that uses info from the drive?