Can’t Eject External Hard Drive on Windows? 7 Possible Fixes

To ensure its safety and integrity

Recently, several colleagues have complained that they can’t eject external hard drives on their Windows computers. There are several reasons for this, including outdated or malfunctioning USB drivers that are preventing the removal of the drive, or other processes accessing the contents of the drive.

You could choose to unplug the drive without closing the applications reading from it first, but this risks possible data corruption. You could use adata recovery tool to repair and recover the corrupted files, but there’s no guarantee that this will work.

To ensure your external hard drive’s safety and integrity, it’s advisable to remove your drive only after closing any processes that are using it.

Can’t Eject External Hard Drive on Windows 10? Try These Fixes

If you’ve tried closing applications that have been accessing files on the external hard drive and you still can’t eject the drive, here are some resolutions that may help.

The built-in Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter is a tool that helps detect any issues with your PC or other devices connected to it. You can use this tool to detect a problem that could be affecting the removal of your external hard drive.

The Run command window helps you open files, folders or launch programs and access web resources in Windows 10. You can also use the tool to run a command and eject your external hard drive.

Disk Manager is another built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps you manage all drives connected to your PC. If the Windows Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter didn’t help, try using Disk Manager and see if it can fix the issue.

If you still can’t eject your external hard drive, use the Task Manager to close anysuspicious tasksrunning on Windows.

Outdated, obsolete or incorrect USB drivers on your PC can also affect your ability to eject your drive from the computer. To resolve this, you can update the USB drivers to ensure you have the latest version for your device and then try ejecting the drive again.

If you don’t find any marks next to any of the entries, uninstall the driver and then reboot your PC. This way, Windows will automatically install the correct and latest version of the USB driver, and you can try ejecting the drive again.

The Device Manager in Windows 10 is an essential utility that helps you configure or troubleshoot hardware and devices on your computer.

If you can’t eject external hardware drives on Windows using the above methods, you can try ejecting it in Device Manager.

Wait for the process to complete and then unplug your external hard drive.

If nothing else works, you can try a third-party utility to help you eject your external hard drive.

One of the free utilities you can use isProcess Explorer, an advanced process management utility that gives details about active processes running on your PC. Such details include the open or loaded handles and DLL processes on your system so you can search for them online in case you’re not sure what they do.

To use Process Explorer, install and run the tool and then selectFind,Find Handle or DLLin the menu. Here, you can type thedrive letterof your external hard drive and let the tools search for it.

Once you find your drive, right-click on it and selectClose Handle.

Eject Your External Hard Drive Safely

We hope you were able to find a helpful solution from all the methods listed in this guide. If you’re still unable to eject your external hard drive, considerbacking up your filesto acloud storage serviceor learn how to transfer large files from one computer to another to prevent any data loss.

If your USB drive is already damaged, turn to our guide on how torecover data from a damaged USB stickfor tips on how to recover your files.

Elsie is a technology writer and editor with a special focus on Windows, Android and iOS. She writes about software, electronics and other tech subjects, her ultimate goal being to help people out with useful solutions to their daily tech issues in a simple, straightforward and unbiased style. She has a BCom degree in Marketing and currently pursuing her Masters in Communications and New Media.Read Elsie’s Full Bio

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Can’t Eject External Hard Drive on Windows? 7 Possible Fixes#

Can’t Eject External Hard Drive on Windows 10? Try These Fixes#

Eject Your External Hard Drive Safely#