External Hard Drive

swimmer13

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Nov 24, 2008
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I am having a problem trying to eject the external hard drive from my Windows XP computer (computer's about 5 years old). I was able to access the documents on the ext. hard drive and work on them (Works documents), but then I can't eject it -- message says "cannot eject, try again later" -- something like that. We end up just pulling it out, but afraid this might ruin the hard drive. Is there something I can do to fix this? I am a novice at best with computers... should I call Western Digital and have them walk me through it, or is it something easy that I can just follow directions through this website. Curious if my computer is too old for the external hard drive device.
 
Sounds like, for some reason, the computer still has files open on the drive. Could just be a directory. Safest is to close down the PC before pulling the drive out. Failing that, just logging off should close any open files.
 

swimmer13

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Nov 24, 2008
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18,510
No, the files are all closed. It's like the computer just thinks there is a file still open. So, as long as the files are closed, I can just unplug the external hard drive without damaging anything? It would be nice if it would say that I can safely eject the hard drive now, but it keeps saying to try again later....?