Update:

From my earlier post ...

snip------------------------------------------------

Regardless of the USB or Firewire connection or device (300 GB External
Drive, Firewire/USB 200 GB Storage, 2.2 GB GigaBank, 2.0 GB Monstor or
Sandisk Card reader), when I try to safely remove the units from USB or 1394
connections I get the attached message and it NEVER allows me to remove
safely unless I go through a restart.

Dell XPS
WinXP Pro sp2
Pentium IV - 3.6 GB
4 GB RAM

snip-------------------------------------------------

I have noticed that these devices are displayed in XP (My Computer) as
"local Drives" rather than mass storage devices. When I insert my 512 MB
memory stick into a USB port, it is recognized as "storage device" and not a
local drive. I believe that herein lies the issue and it may be related to
the size of the drive as interpreted by Win XP. Since XP thinks these are
local drives they may always be in use one way or another and therefore
require a restart to shut them down. In light of these new observations,
does anyone have a possible solution?

Thanks,

P.

This message maens that some program is accessing the drive.

However, if that is not Explorer (i.e., copy&paste), I would not worry about
it.

I often get this message and when I investigate it is something unimportant
like the XP indexing service (for fast searches, or so it says). Or, it
could be XPs system restore, which does not seem to be bright enough to turn
itself off for external drives.


"Posthumous" <mortem@later.com> wrote in message
news:OfCb8eTzFHA.1028@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Update:
>
> From my earlier post ...
>
> snip------------------------------------------------
>
> Regardless of the USB or Firewire connection or device (300 GB External
> Drive, Firewire/USB 200 GB Storage, 2.2 GB GigaBank, 2.0 GB Monstor or
> Sandisk Card reader), when I try to safely remove the units from USB or
> 1394 connections I get the attached message and it NEVER allows me to
> remove safely unless I go through a restart.
>
> Dell XPS
> WinXP Pro sp2
> Pentium IV - 3.6 GB
> 4 GB RAM
>
> snip-------------------------------------------------
>
> I have noticed that these devices are displayed in XP (My Computer) as
> "local Drives" rather than mass storage devices. When I insert my 512 MB
> memory stick into a USB port, it is recognized as "storage device" and not
> a local drive. I believe that herein lies the issue and it may be related
> to the size of the drive as interpreted by Win XP. Since XP thinks these
> are local drives they may always be in use one way or another and
> therefore require a restart to shut them down. In light of these new
> observations, does anyone have a possible solution?
>
> Thanks,
>
> P.
>
>

Thanks for the reply, Bob. I'll try turning off System Restore and see what
that does. I went through a similar procedure with my anti-virus and
firewall software without a positive result. Perhaps I need to turn off SR,
create a manual image and leave it at that. I'll let you know if I win this
one.

Cheers,

P.

"Bob Harris" <rharris270[SPAM]@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23snhbhdzFHA.2880@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> This message maens that some program is accessing the drive.
>
> However, if that is not Explorer (i.e., copy&paste), I would not worry
> about it.
>
> I often get this message and when I investigate it is something
> unimportant like the XP indexing service (for fast searches, or so it
> says). Or, it could be XPs system restore, which does not seem to be
> bright enough to turn itself off for external drives.
>
>
> "Posthumous" <mortem@later.com> wrote in message
> news:OfCb8eTzFHA.1028@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> Update:
>>
>> From my earlier post ...
>>
>> snip------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Regardless of the USB or Firewire connection or device (300 GB External
>> Drive, Firewire/USB 200 GB Storage, 2.2 GB GigaBank, 2.0 GB Monstor or
>> Sandisk Card reader), when I try to safely remove the units from USB or
>> 1394 connections I get the attached message and it NEVER allows me to
>> remove safely unless I go through a restart.
>>
>> Dell XPS
>> WinXP Pro sp2
>> Pentium IV - 3.6 GB
>> 4 GB RAM
>>
>> snip-------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I have noticed that these devices are displayed in XP (My Computer) as
>> "local Drives" rather than mass storage devices. When I insert my 512 MB
>> memory stick into a USB port, it is recognized as "storage device" and
>> not a local drive. I believe that herein lies the issue and it may be
>> related to the size of the drive as interpreted by Win XP. Since XP
>> thinks these are local drives they may always be in use one way or
>> another and therefore require a restart to shut them down. In light of
>> these new observations, does anyone have a possible solution?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> P.
>>
>>
>
>