I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
removed though no application is using them. It happoens to both a toshiba
laptop and a desktop ruuning vista.
I tried to just plug them in without doing anything and still get the same
message "could disconnect because an application is using it". I wait for
hours and still nothing.
I do not have any problem with them in windows xp or linux.
Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely disconnect
it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.

froy02 wrote:
> I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
> but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
> removed though no application is using them. It happoens to both a toshiba
> laptop and a desktop ruuning vista.
> I tried to just plug them in without doing anything and still get the same
> message "could disconnect because an application is using it". I wait for
> hours and still nothing.
> I do not have any problem with them in windows xp or linux.
> Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely disconnect
> it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.

My external drive is the same way as long as the drive window is open in
either explorer or my computer. Close the window and use the disconnect
icon in the task bar and see if that helps. This is what I have to do.


--
"In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I
have made the great
discovery that liberty is a product of order"
Will Durant

It may be Windows indexing that is using the drives.
--
Paul


"Dave T." wrote:

> froy02 wrote:
> > I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted ntfs
> > but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
> > removed though no application is using them. It happoens to both a toshiba
> > laptop and a desktop ruuning vista.
> > I tried to just plug them in without doing anything and still get the same
> > message "could disconnect because an application is using it". I wait for
> > hours and still nothing.
> > I do not have any problem with them in windows xp or linux.
> > Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely disconnect
> > it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.
>
> My external drive is the same way as long as the drive window is open in
> either explorer or my computer. Close the window and use the disconnect
> icon in the task bar and see if that helps. This is what I have to do.
>
>
> --
> "In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I
> have made the great
> discovery that liberty is a product of order"
> Will Durant
>

Hi, froy02.

Run Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc). Right-click on each drive and choose
Properties. Is there a Policies tab? If so, you can choose between
Optimize for quick removal or Optimize for performance. Choose quick
removal.

When optimized for performance, Vista caches "writes" to the device, and
worries that data "in the pipeline" might be lost if the device is
unexpectedly unplugged. But when we optimize for quick removal, Vista takes
a few extra seconds to close the cache after each write, thus clearing the
pipeline, so that nothing gets lost on a quick disconnect.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta 2 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"froy02" <froy02@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D1EC1C9D-5DE7-4BD3-9DFE-63063CD5C264@microsoft.com...
> I have 2 usb external drives, Iomega and Acomdata. Both are formatted
> ntfs
> but when I connect them to Vista premium machine they could not be safely
> removed though no application is using them. It happoens to both a
> toshiba
> laptop and a desktop ruuning vista.
> I tried to just plug them in without doing anything and still get the
> same
> message "could disconnect because an application is using it". I wait for
> hours and still nothing.
> I do not have any problem with them in windows xp or linux.
> Also if i format them using a vista machine i could never safely
> disconnect
> it even if i wait a whole day after it finished formatting.