Generic Volume cannot be stopped

[KeenUser]

I have searched a long time for a good external drive and its very worrying to receive an error message I'm not able to rectify.

Like probably many thousands of users, I'm very confused with that message and extremely worried about losing my data.

Can Ceedo please respond positively to this error message rather than speculate as to whether 'explorer' windows are opened or windows is unable to close the device. I've just bought and connected the Seagate FreeAgent GO - 160Gb to use on Windows XP Pro) and the error message pops up - How long have I got to wait to try again. Each attempt requires starting Ceedo again. I'm afraid to unplug it for fear of losing data. This is NOT helpful.

Some concrete steps to take (and perhaps accompanied by explanations) would be most useful.

Thank you

[potetan]

Hi KeenUser.

Usually Ceedo doesn't cause this error, but one of the apps installed on the drive. What apps do you have installed? I know a few that can give such an error (like Winamp or Skype), so maybe i'll be able to help.

Anyhow, I don't remember that this error ever caused me to lose data.

[ccox]

I too have a Seagate FreeAgent 160 GB drive. I have found that everytime I use the Internet Explorer through Ceedo, I cannot eject Ceedo. I receive a message saying "The device 'Generic Volume' cannot be stopped because a program is still accessing it." Waiting any reasonable amount of time and trying again does not result in asuccessful ejection. I have closed all applications and I have checked Task Manager and found no indication of open programs.

On the other hand, if I do not use Internet Explorer and, for example, instead use only files from My documents in Ceedo, Ceedo will eject correctly.

The failure to eject after using Internet Explorer happens in Windows XP and Windows 2000. The failure to eject also happens on four different computers, at least one of which has a different antivirus and and antispyware program.

On the same four computers, a LaCie 120 GB external hard drive and a Lexar 4GB Jump Drive, both with Ceedo, eject correctly after using Internet Explorer.

This leads me to believe that the problem relates to the Seagate FreeAgent Hard Drive rather than to Ceedo, per se.

Finally, I just disconnect the Seagate USB plugs after attempting to eject Ceedo and receiving "The Generic volume cannot be stopped" message and I have not lost any data yet. I have been using my Seagate Drive for about a month.

I too wish that the ejection feature worked correctly. Thanks for any help.

[keith]

The eject issue does seem to be fairly common. What I usually do when this happens to me is check the task manager to see what program/ process may be stopping my drive from ejecting successfully. More often than not, I can't find anything that looks like it might be related to the issue.

If I'm not working on anything else at the time, I'll either log off or just restart the system, and this will take care of it. If I can't log off or restart at that time, and I'm in a hurry, I'll just disconnect the drive. So far, this has not had any adverse affects on the drive or the contents.

Disconnecting the drive this way is not something that I want to become a habit, though.

[DrorW]

The function of disconnecting the drive, is a windows standard function and not Ceedo specific. It's the same as using the "small" USB icon in the task bar.

Ceedo, when exits, usually closes promoptly all processes created, and should eject safetly. When Ejecting the drive, Ceedo is doing a several attempts to eject the drive, and if fail - issue the error message.

If it fails, this is most likely a process running on the PC which uses a file on the Ceedo drive. There is absolutely no need to start ceedo and eject again - this is most likely to fail. One might try using the windows eject after a few seconds of wait, this might help. We also found out that on Vista, if explorer is opened on the drive it will not allow safe removal, and the window has to be closed first. This is not the case on Windows 2000 and XP. We also know that WinWord, if used from Ceedo, might not release handles to the temp file, and killing the process might help. Note that WinWord might also be used as your default outlook editor for messages.

If you REALLY want to find out why the drive is used, Any good Process Monitor, which can also list the file handles that each process use, can solve the riddle.

As for loosing data, the only data that might be lost is the specific file that is opened, not just any data on the drive. If you do not know what is opened, you probably should not really worry about it.

[Tom]

I would also suggest making sure the drive is set for optimal use:

To do so:
Open My Computer and right click on the drive
Choose "Properties".
Go to "Hardware"
Select the removable drive
Click Properties and go to the "Policies" tab
Make sure that the drive is "Optimized for Quick Removal"
Click Ok, Ok,

[zibby]

Another nice option would be to shut down ceedo without ejecting usb hardware.;)

[keith]

Another nice option would be to shut down ceedo without ejecting usb hardware.;)

You can do this by right-clicking on the tray icon and selecting exit instead of eject.

[ma_la883]

Pen drives have similar problems i.e hardware or virus problems. Some common problems and their uncommon solutions about pen drives are listed.

http://www.tutkiun.com/2010/03/solutions-to-usb-pen-drive-problems.html


I have searched a long time for a good external drive and its very worrying to receive an error message I'm not able to rectify.

Like probably many thousands of users, I'm very confused with that message and extremely worried about losing my data.

Can Ceedo please respond positively to this error message rather than speculate as to whether 'explorer' windows are opened or windows is unable to close the device. I've just bought and connected the Seagate FreeAgent GO - 160Gb to use on Windows XP Pro) and the error message pops up - How long have I got to wait to try again. Each attempt requires starting Ceedo again. I'm afraid to unplug it for fear of losing data. This is NOT helpful.

Some concrete steps to take (and perhaps accompanied by explanations) would be most useful.

Thank you