So annoying, yes?
Got this question the other day:
“Hey…you ever figure out what was hanging up that Western Digital Passport (external drive) that your client wanted to disconnect? My 500GB can’t be “safely removed” without me turning off my system. Whats up with that?”
It’s ok to get that error. The default removal policy for external hard drives is Quick Removal which disables write caching on the device and in Windows. So you don’t need to use the “safely remove” and yes, you’ll still get the message. Lame, huh?
See for yourself by double checking the device properties:
First, Open Computer:
Right Click on C: drive, Go to Properties. Next Click on Hardware tab and select your disk drive. Click on Properties box.
Click on Policies tab. There it is. Should be defaulted on external drives to Quick Removal.
UPDATE:
If you don’t have a Policies tab, you should have a Change settings button (see it at the bottom left hand side of the device properties box), yes?
Click on it! And now the Policies tab appears:
