Help!! Can someone help me with an IT issue???

[PFB2]

I'll begin by apologising for being so utterly clueless with computers.

I have a load of precious pictures on an external hard drive. I've plugged the hard drive into my laptop to transport the images. All done successfully. I'm now trying to remove the hard drive.

I've clicked on the 'safely remove hardware and eject media' icon. Then 'eject external USB' but I get an error message saying 'problem ejecting mass USB storage device' it also says, this device is currently in use. It is asking me to close any programs or windows that might be using the device and try again. I can't see any open windows so can't figure out what program is using it. I've pressed ctrl alt delete and it doesn't have anything in there that's running other than my anti virus?

Any ideas?

Bump.

Try restarting then try ejecting again?

Have you closed down absolutely everything?
Rebooting can fix this.

My laptop at work often thinks I still have files open a few minutes after I closed them. Some register doesn't get updated fast enough.

Have you tired opening task manager (ctrl +alt +del) to see what's running and then shutting everything from there?

Safely shut down windows and let the computer turn-off.

Unplug the USB drive, and then reboot your computer.

That’s it. No damage will occur to your files on the USB drive.

I've just tried shutting down and powering back on but I'm getting the same error message when I try to remove it 👎🏻

Will just have to power off then remove the hard drive. So, that definitely won't harm the files?

I've just tried shutting down and powering back on but I'm getting the same error message when I try to remove it 👎🏻

Will just have to power off then remove the hard drive. So, that definitely won't harm the files?

Just shut it down but don't restart.
Remove the hard drive then turn the laptop back on and check your files are there.

Yes, as long as you shut windows down safely, and then allow the computer to turn off, and then disconnect the USB drive ( with the power still off). Then switch the computer back on again.

No damage will occur to your files.

Done 🙌🏼 thanks all.