ronbar59

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Apr 21, 2011
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Hello,
Sometimes when I try to remove a USB flash drive by clicking the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, a popup message appears saying something like "This drive cannot be removed right now, as it is being used by another process. Please try again later."
But when this popup appears it does so at times when the Task Manager shows that no applications are running.
When that happens the only way I know of to remove the flash drive is to either reboot or shut down the PC.
Is there any other way to safely remove the flash drive when I can find nothing for which it is being used?
 
Solution

No, because it probably runs as a service.

There must be some reason why it can't be removed, and I don't know how to find it for you. But I do know the answer to the original question. Don't do that. Too risky.

ronbar59

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Apr 21, 2011
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18,510


There is nothing visibly open (just the usual Desktop icons), and when I open Task Manager the Applications tab has no entries.

I don't know how to tell whether my antivirus (ESet Smart Security) is scanning anything.

Wouldn't such scanning show up in Task Manager as an open Application?
 

No, because it probably runs as a service.

There must be some reason why it can't be removed, and I don't know how to find it for you. But I do know the answer to the original question. Don't do that. Too risky.
 
Solution