USB Flash drive problem

[icedgreentea]

Hi all, I was using my flash drive a few days ago when I finished up and clicked on the "safely remove hardware" icon on my taskbar. Unfortunately, I got an error message saying that some program was still accessing it. I was in a hurry and didn't bother to pursue the problem further but I used my flash drive again and when I went to remove it, i got the same message. How do I figure out what program is accessing my drive? Thanks for any input.

[coreman]

This has happened to me on many occasions; as far as I know there isn't an easy way to specifically ID the program hanging up the USB (even in Task Manager) although when it occurs, I first check Task Manager (ctrl-alt-del) and see if there are any programs obviously open that I think are closed or should be closed.

Most frequent offenders for me are Foxit PDF Reader and Copernic Desktop Search...I also have some utilities loaded that can hang up the USB dismount but I won't go into those since they are specific to my setup.

Best thing to do is make sure whatever program you had opened and were using with the USB reader is not showing (meaning it is closed) in the "Processes" tab of Task Manager. And a reboot always fixes everything for me (last resort)!

[webwesen]

"Unlocker" is your friend
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

[coreman]

"Unlocker" is your friend
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

AFAIK, this doesn't work when trying to close/unmount USB devices...am I correct in this thinking?

[icedgreentea]

ahh you're right, a reboot generally does help but the prospect of having to go through my processes list is kinda daunting... any of the moderators have a take on this? i mean, sometimes, i'm just in the middle of something and I can't afford to reboot for one thing.