Many a time when you try to unplug your USB drive, you get an error message that the drive is in use by some program. It’s a reasonable precaution from Windows. It keeps you warned about a data transfer that might be taking place or any other use. If you unplug during that, it can result in data corruption. However, Windows certainly does not identify which application is using the device so you can close them. In this post, we will share how you can find which program is blocking the USB device when ejecting.
Note: It is also possible that while there is no process accessing USB drive, the lock seems to stay. It generally happens when a program fails to free the lock and Windows see the drive is use.
Find which program is blocking USB device when ejecting
Dev Eject is a free windows based tool to help you identify the applications which are using and have locked down. It also lets you manage the application either by killing them or bringing them to the front. Remember it is always a good idea to eject USB drives by using the Windows Interface or any other tool. Even though 90% of the time nothing happens but you would never want your USB to become a brick, especially when in an emergency or some important work.
Features of Dev Eject
- Displays a list of USB or Storage Devices that are connected to your computer.
- An option to eject the USB drive.
- List of processes or programs accessing the USB drive.
- Option to bring the process in front. Useful if it’s a background process which you cannot see in your Taskbar or System tray.
- You can kill the process right from there.
- It also lists down all the folders that are being accessed by any application.
Video Demo of DevEject
The video explains how you can use DevEject to remove any lock or know about a program using the USB drive.
Your next step should be to Protect your computer from infected USB Drives using USB Immunizer
