How can I safely Remove a USB from a Windows 10 Device? How can I safely Remove a USB Drive from Windows 1809 changes?
Do you think the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media option is painful when you connect an external hard disk and want to unplug/remove it? Can we directly unplug the external HDD? I don’t think you should do that.
The Windows 10 Technical Preview version also has the same painful “Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media” method for safely removing external hard disks.
Have you provided feedback on more EASY and user-friendly options for removing the external Hard Disk? If so, vote it up!
- Turn On or Off USB Connection Notifications in Windows 11
- Create Rufus Bootable USB Drive for Windows 11
| Index |
|---|
| How to Safely Remove USB from Windows 10 Device |
How to Safely Remove USB from Windows 10 Device
I’ve already created a Feedback item on the Windows 10 TP User Voice website, and the following is the link for my feedback item: https://windows.uservoice.com! Moreover, Windows 10 technical Preview 9879, Safely Remove Hardware, and Eject Media icons are broken !! So, my guess is the Microsoft team is already working on this.
How to Remove USB Drive Safely from Windows 1809 changes?
When you enter “This PC” (replacement of My Computer) in Windows 10, you can see the external HDD connected to that machine. However, when you right-click on the external HDD, there won’t be any eject option to unplug/remove the HDD safely (unlike USB).
Instead, you need to go to the system tray, click “Safely Remove Hardware or Eject Media,” select your external HDD, and then eject it. How painful. You need to remember the name of the external hard disk 🙁
We already have an EJECT option for USB drives connected to Windows 10 laptops or desktops. However, there is no option available for External Hard Disks. We’ve used the old “Safely Remove Hardware or Eject Media” option. If Microsoft can add these Safely Remove or Eject options in the right-click menu, it would be beneficial!!
See the screenshot below; there is no EJECT option for External HDD.
Resources
Windows 10 is the Latest Version Of the Client Operating System From Microsoft (anoopcnair.com)
We are on WhatsApp now. To get the latest step-by-step guides, news, and updates, Join our Channel. Click here. HTMD WhatsApp.
Author
Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His primary focus is Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.
why can’t we just have an eject icon next to the removable device like osx and linux distros have had for over a decade?
Very True none !
Thanks! Much appreciated!!
One Commander file manager (v2) has eject button next to the drive is side panel
ive already damaged a 32gb sd card i got the same day because of this issue…..very ####.
I cannot find the root directory C:
the system tray “Eject Media” doesn’t always work on external USB drives. Half of the time, it responds: “Media is being used the system…please close application blah blah” …even though no application is using it. SO instead, I right-click on that USB device in the file explorer, and choose “eject.” This always works.
BUT… since the latest Windows 10 update…there is no “eject” option for external drives in file explorer. So I have have to shut down the computer to disconnect the USB drive.
I miss my Windows 7 🙁 It was reliable and nice-looking…compared to the flat,ugly, buggy Windows 10
I had the same issue and this solved it for me.
Go to Settings > Devices > Connected devices. Find your external drive under “Other devices” and click on “Remove device”.
Hope this helps!
HungerJames, this don’t solve the problem. Rosco Boxer maybe only the message is wrong, probrably your device don’t need to be ejeted before to be removed.
Don’t do that:
“Go to Settings > Devices > Connected devices. Find your external drive under “Other devices” and click on “Remove device”. ”
because your drive (and driver???) will be removed and won’t show up again when you plug it next time.
Still trying to recover from that move… 🙁
On Windows 10 checking settings I found a default setting that indicates that you can remove the flash drive without ejecting it. That is why we can’t find the instructions.
The problem is when you remove an external hard disk in windows 10 not safely you cannot access it from Linux, a message says unable to mount disk.
So I have to restart windows then shut the docking station. In this case I could access it from Linux.
Any suggestion please
Yeah Windows 10 – say no more! Won’t take any older programs, can’r eject a HDD, takes ages to boot, nuisance ‘Search/Copy’ dialog, useless file system, expensive – $100+ only lets you install Windows 10 ONCE!! So if you wipe your HDD to partition it and need to replace the useless Windows 10 it costs you – PER COMPUTER! I’ll stick to my old computer and throw the new one – that I just bought – out. A simple solution to an insoluable problem.