-2

We have a 1TB USB WesternDigital MyPassport External HDD plugged into our Windows 2008 R2 (64-bit) server (HP ProLiant ML110 G7) and when you go to eject the External HDD (to swap drives for backups), right-click and hit Eject MyPassport, it'll sit there for over a minute or two before it tells you its safe to unplug the device. It shouldn't be currently writing when we eject it, as all it does it Windows Server Backups on the hour and we're definitely not ejecting it while a backup is running.

Any idea what could be causing such long eject times?

2
  • Have you tried switching it off and switching it on again?
    – Chopper3
    Jul 18, 2012 at 19:02
  • Yep, sure have.
    – David
    Jul 18, 2012 at 19:04

3 Answers 3

1

Did you just write data the the external drive? (E.g. did you just write the backup to it?)

If you did then windows likely has not finished actually writing the data and that it has remaining unflushed data cached in RAM.

6
  • I've tried ejecting it 20-40 minutes after a backup has completed and it always takes 1-2 minutes.
    – David
    Jul 16, 2012 at 17:20
  • Try turning off indexing for that drive? Jul 16, 2012 at 17:41
  • Would that be under the drive's properties from Disk Management and un-checking "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties"?
    – David
    Jul 16, 2012 at 17:52
  • Yep, I believe so. Just trying to think of things that might continue to use the drive in the background. Maybe process explorer from sysinternals can show you what has locks there too Jul 16, 2012 at 18:10
  • Definitely didn't fix it by disabling indexing. Took 1m22s from the moment I clicked eject until it said it was safe to eject.
    – David
    Jul 16, 2012 at 18:17
1

Check to make sure delayed write is turned off.

Go to Disk Management. Right click on the disk itself (not the partition) and select Properties. Under Policies, you want it to be set to "Quick Removal".

1
  • Already is set to Quick Removal, by default.
    – David
    Jul 16, 2012 at 18:48
0

Delete all shadow copies off of the external hard drive and it will rapidly eject. For some, not an acceptable solution and one that has to be repeated. It is really just more detail about the problem and its root cause. Now we need someone to explain why the shadow copies slow the eject process.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .