Cannot safely remove external hard drive

[x-shaney-x]

I have an external USB hard drive which is split into 3 partitions - 1 for PC backups, 1 for PS3 backups and 1 for Xbox backups.

I normally use it this way:

Connect the drive, the device notifier pops up and lists the 3 partitions so I choose the "PC-BACKUP" one and copy what I need to the drive.

Now when I try to safely remove it via dolphin or the device notifier, it gives me a message that it cannot remove it because files are in use in another application.
It doesn't tell me what this other application is and even if I close EVERY running app, it still says the same.

Running umount in konsole also says it is busy and cannot be removed unless I use "-f"

This happens EVERY single time I use the external drive and regardless of which partition I actually choose to mount.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

I have a UBS stick using U3 that behaves like that. I have to "remove" all three before I can pull the stick out.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

i've had usb sticks do the same, with the U3 file system. If it is just a plain stick it removes ok. so mebbe it is a smart thing like U3.
woodsmoke

[josefko]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

I have never seen it in Linux, but I know it from Windows, where it can be caused by indexing. Maybe it is the same here, try to switch off Strigi in System settings > Advanced > Searching service (or similar)

[PattiMichelle]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

I've seen that too with both USB sticks and my TrueCrypt volumes (under Kubuntu 10.10 and Natty). The OS reports it cannot unmount the drive because *something* is using it (even though nothing seems to be running). It sort of behaves like a "stuck bit" in the disk driver subsystem. Does Kubuntu have the 'indexing problem' that Win Vista/7 have? (Most folks turn off indexing in W7...) I had assumed Linux didn't have an indexing subsystem since searches (Kfind) are so DARNED slow. :-X

[Snowhog]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

The 'indexing' system that exists in Kubuntu (since Jaunty ?) is Strigi. By default, it's active upon installation. Most turn it off. System Settings > Desktop Search > Strigi Desktop File Indexer.

[x-shaney-x]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

Well I have had strigi and nepomuk disabled since install so doesn't seem to be down to that.

Although I mentioned in my first post that this happens regardless of which partition I choose to mount on plugging in the device, turns out not.

It safely removes fine if I mount the Fat32 PS3 backup partition. My PC-BACKUP one is ext3 and that is the one having problems.

[Snowhog]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

It might be possible that that partition isn't 'clean'. With the stick attached, open a console and type:

sudo fdisk -l

Identify PC-BACKUP partition. Then type:

fsck -t ext3 /dev/sdxx

where xx is the specific designation of the partition noted by fdisk -l.

If the parition filesystem was 'unclean', then this will 'repair' it. Then exit the console, and from Dolphin see if you can mount and unmount the partition properly.

[PattiMichelle]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

The 'indexing' system that exists in Kubuntu (since Jaunty ?) is Strigi. By default, it's active upon installation. Most turn it off. System Settings > Desktop Search > Strigi Desktop File Indexer.

OIC - well, why are searches so unbelievably slow, and I see the HD light constantly lit, and the system gets very slow and unresponsive? Is it just that no indexer can handle a big old 1.8TB system?

[Snowhog]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

If it's Stigi that is giving you issues, it's (likely) because the initial index hasn't been built - that's what takes the most time initially. Once the index is built, then system maintenance of it it isn't as time consuming. On a very large system, the initial indexing could take quite a while to finish.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

An aside:

Before the current USB mount/unmount paradigm I occasionally had problems unmounting a USB stick IF I closed Dolphin while it was still focused on the USB stick. The error message was exactly what you are getting: "device busy"... I found that I could avoid umounting problems if I changed the focus of Dolphin to my home account before I closed it.

Now, at least for USB sticks, when I right mouse on the device in Dolphin's "Places" panel and choose "Safely Remove", Dolphin will remove the USB directories from the right panel before it umounts it. ... Unless one of the other U3 drives is mounted. Then I have to safely remove all three. I have eliminated that problem by completely reformatting those drives with EXT2.

[Snowhog]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

Before the current USB mount/unmount paradigm I occasionally had problems unmounting a USB stick IF I closed Dolphin while it was still focused on the USB stick. The error message was exactly what you are getting: "device busy"... I found that I could avoid umounting problems if I changed the focus of Dolphin to my home account before I closed it.

Good observation! In fact, it's a very good observation. I do this without thinking about it - move the focus back to my Home folder - before unmounting another mounted partition. Makes perfect sense when you stop to think about it.

[josefko]

Re: Cannot safely remove external hard drive

even if I close EVERY running app, it still says the same.

I hope, when x-shaney-x wrote, that he closed every running app, he meant also Dolphin.