It is important to note that once you eject the external hard drive, it will appear as Offline. Ejecting External Drive using Disk Management Right-click on your external hard drive and select ‘ Eject’.
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Locate the external hard drive that you want to eject.Go to the Start Menu, type in Disk Management and hit Enter.If you are unable to eject the drive using the ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’ option, you can easily remove the drive safely using the Disk Management tool. Solution 5: Eject the Drive Using Disk Managementĭisk Management is a Windows built-in utility that lets you manage all the disks or drives connected to your system. Running the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter Select it and click ‘ Run the troubleshooter’.Scroll down and locate ‘ Hardware and devices’.Press Windows Key + I to open Settings.In this case, since you are having issues with your external hardware, executing the Hardware and devices troubleshooter might fix your issue. The built-in troubleshooters are there for a reason and should be utilized whenever needs be. Solution 4: Run the Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter Now simply select the drive you want to eject and click “Stop”.It should bring up the Safely Remove Hardware utility for you.Now type this shortcut and press enter:- RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll Accessing the Utility.Press and hold the “Windows + R” keys together to open the Run program.To access this utility, follow these steps:. Basically, it will open the whole utility and let you eject the External Hard drive easily. There is a shortcut that you can use to access the old “Safely Remove Hardware” tool Windows have. Solution 3: Using Safely Remove Hardware utility Now simply restart your computer and check if you have the option to eject the drive.Head over to the “Policies” tab and make sure to select “Better Performance”.Right-click on the drive you want to eject and click “Properties”.Now expand the “Disk Drives” section then find the Drive you want to eject.You can change the policy Windows set for your hard drive by following these steps:. So Windows doesn’t let you remove the Hard Drive if it thinks that there is a danger of data loss. It means that your Windows is preventing the Hard Drive to be ejected as it might be in the middle of an operation. If you can’t see any “Eject” option on your Windows. Solution 2: Checking the Hard Drive policy Once your system has booted up again, try ejecting the external drive. You can also end such tasks by using the Task Manager, however, that is time-consuming and since a restart is much quicker and efficient, you should restart your system instead of ending the tasks using the Task Manager. Rebooting your machine will close all the current applications and third-party processes and when the system boots up again, there will be no applications using the files stored on the external hard drive. The first step in solving your issue would be to reboot your machine. To circumvent your issue, please follow the solutions down below in the same order as provided.
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Sometimes, the obsolete or malfunctioning USB drivers on your system can be causing the hiccup. If the background processes or applications are using the files stored on the external drive, it can cause the issue. If you are not able to safely eject your external drive and the ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’ option is greyed out, the issue is typically due to the following factors. Problem Ejecting External Hard Drive Safely What stops Users from Ejecting their External Drive Safely on Windows 10?
![format external hard drive windows 7 menu format external hard drive windows 7 menu](https://www.pcerror-fix.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Reformatting-in-windows.png)
Nonetheless, to help you fix your problem, you can follow the solutions down below. Your drive will most likely get corrupted or damaged if you recklessly eject the drive. To ensure the safety and integrity of your external hardware, it is always advised to remove your drive only when there is no other process using it.
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Users have reported that they cannot eject their hard drive using the ‘ Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’ option which is located on the bottom-left side of the taskbar. This issue is often caused by other processes that are using the contents of the drive or Windows USB drivers which prevent the removal of the external drive. Some users have reported that they are not able to safely eject their external hard drive like USBs etc.