I try to turn off my WD (1tb) external hard drive by clicking on the WD icon that says: "safely remove my book essential USB HDD," and I've ALSO tried to turn it off manually, but a box pop's up and says the following:
"The device My Book Essential USB HDD could not be removed. Please close all running programs and try again later."
I have no idea why it won't let me turn it off "safely." When I shut down my computer I'm sure it disconnects somehow, but I don't know if that's safe.
The error means that you are using a file on the external hard drive and that it can not close that file when it is use. You have to close the program that is using the file first.
Example:
Lets go on the assumption that you have your music collection on the external. If you still have your music player running when you try to disconnect, you will be greeting with the same error message.
If the external contains any files that your Operating System uses, you will get this message anytime the computer is on. An example of this can be your "Page File".
Shutting the computer down correctly is your safest bet until you find exactly what file is being used and what program is using it. During shut down, the computer closes any running programs. With no programs running, it will safely disconnect from the external HD because there will be no files in use.
If you manually disconnect it while the file is in use, you could very easily corrupt the file and make it unusable. This is comparable to an Operating System getting corrupted from a computer not being shut down correctly (pulling the power from wall without doing a shut down).
Hope this helps.
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