Windows 8 Unable to safely eject external hard drive

Does the external USB HDD have it's own power source?

There are two things you might check for the drive in the Device Manager. Look at the properties and the Policies tab. which boxes are checked?

Also look at the Details tab, and select "Safe removal required" from the drop down menu. What does it say?

Bassfisher: no, it doesn't. Saltgrass: unfortunately those options do not appear in Device Manager.

Trevor Condon said:

Bassfisher: no, it doesn't. Saltgrass: unfortunately those options do not appear in Device Manager.

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So you don't have at least the designation shown in the attachment?

Yes I'm sorry there is a 'disk drive' option. But I've checked 'safe removal required' and yet still it will not allow me to do that.

If it says a Safe Removal is not required, then that is how it works. There are some devices, such as memory cards in a USB reader, if you safe remove them, it messes up the USB port.

Basically it is looking at whether you have data that might be accessed or, as Bassfisher mentions, if it has its own power supply so it doesn't get a power interruption during the disconnect. As you can see, my external drive does not require a safe removal.

But whereas yours says Value - false, mine says Value - true. Therefore safe removal is required?

Not all USB drives needed to be "safely removed" especially if you have hot-swappable drives where once an appropriate software is installed, a user can plug and unplug the component without interruption to the system. You may also want to check this out:

Trevor Condon said:

But I've checked 'safe removal required' and yet still it will not allow me to do that.

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Do you mean you looked at the setting and it shows Safe Removal as true, or you are using some checkbox to all safe removal?

I have checked all of my external drives and they all show safe removal as "false", but I do get the safe removal option in the hidden icons section on the Taskbar.

All of my devices, an external caddy and two externals, show the drive also under the Disk Drives section where it does have Policies tab I mentioned earlier but you stated you did not show any drives in that section.

The only other thing I would check is the USB controllers section in the Device Manager. When you plug something in you may get a Mass Storage entry. Mine just shows the same as the Portable device, but you might check yours.

You might give us the model of your External Drive so we can check.

Saltgrass said:

If it says a Safe Removal is not required, then that is how it works. There are some devices, such as memory cards in a USB reader, if you safe remove them, it messes up the USB port.

Basically it is looking at whether you have data that might be accessed or, as Bassfisher mentions, if it has its own power supply so it doesn't get a power interruption during the disconnect. As you can see, my external drive does not require a safe removal.

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I bricked my flash drive once because forgot to safely remove it