I've got a Seagate external hard drive that removes just fine from my laptop, but here at my office I get the message

"The devie 'Generic volume' cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later."

When I click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon.

I've googled it to death and just get a bunch of chat about "windows doesn't like this and that", "large drives", "drivers", etc.

I know I can shut down the computer, then remove it, then power back on... but that's a drag.

What's the real deal?

As long as I know no files from the drive are open, can I just unplug it from my usb port?

I have a 2GB flashdrive by *imation, and I have the same problem. One day, I got fed up with the message (after seeing it for 10 minutes) so I just unplugged it from my PC. It happens once in a blue moon, but my drive and the files on it are fine. Hopefully this works for you, better yet, hope you can figure out a way to get past it!:)

Hi Rick,
Here is some interesting info -- both a link to a program that might help give some insight into the problem, as well as some good relevant info about Norton Utilities if you use such:

http://david.fallingrock.net/2004/09/21/cannot-stop-device-right-now/

Hope this helps. Take care. :)

Thanks Thomas. I have no Norton stuff on my computer. I may try that Filemon app to see what's up.

Hi RickJ,

I also have a Seagate external drive with the same issue. In my situation, my home PC (home built) disconnects it just fine while my office PC (Dell) does not. What I found to be the situation with my Dell is the Write Behind feature is significantly slower than my home PC. Thus, if I'm using the Dell and I've written any files to my external drive I wait about 15-20 minutes before I use the safely remove hardware feature. This generally has resolved my problem.