Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with unmount

Why does my File Browser keep opening?

carsonb — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:49:44 -0800

There are currently 4 File Browsers open on my desktop, all displaying either the contents of my external hard drive or the folder where it's mounted (/media/). I didn't open them—they just showed up. This morning when I woke up there was 40+ File Browser windows open of the same. Another window just opened; it seems to occur at random intervals. I'm running Ubuntu Linux 8.10, wtf is causing this? It's been going on for about a week now. My external drive is a 500gb WD network drive that's been ripped out of its original case, rehoused in a new external enclosure, wiped and repartitioned as ext3, and plugged directly into my desktop. I keep my music collection on it, and about a week ago Amarok totally forgot that I have any music files. I checked the path marked for the collection; Amarok still knows where the files are, and will play them if I drag/drop them from the browser into the playlist, but it doesn't report that I have a collection. Oddly, saved playlists still work.

Then, yesterday, the drive wouldn't even mount. Every time I tried I got an odd error message that didn't turn up many results in the Google. (Hasn't happened today and I don't have the text of the msg saved.) The only concrete suggestion I got from searching was to try testdisk to root out any bad sectors, find missing partitions, etc. So I ran that, didn't really find any problems, but had the program re-write the partition table anyway. The drive mounted after I did that, but has so far continued the original bad behavior.

I've banged on all the relevant keyboard keys; it's not a stuck key. I've unplugged the drive to let it cool down and plugged it back in. I've tried prayer and idol worship and what seems like a million other things. I'm running out of ideas here.

What's going on? (4 more File Browsers have opened in the background while I typed this.) How do I make it stop? Do I have a virus? (My computer is acting like I never expected a Linux desktop to, coming from buggy, virusy Windows.) Is my drive dying? How can I get Amarok to recognize my collection again? Failing relevant answers to the above, what's the easiest way to close a zillion (but not all) windows at once?

What is the proper way to safely unplug USB drives?

kampken — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:41:55 -0800

I've heard many different explanations about how to unplug drives in Windows XP. Some insist on using the removal tool and others just yank it out. So actually i have a matter of questions which i hope someone with the proper expertise can answer. 1) What exactly does the "safe removal" tool in Windows XP do and it is any different than just waiting until the drive isn't writing and then unplugging it?

2) Is there any increased risk by running a NTFS filesystem on the usb flashdrive than the more common FAT on these devices? I use NTFS to move around bigger files than FAT32 can support, but i heard something about NTFS being more prone to data corruption when unplugged prematurely, than FAT systems.

3) What happens when you have some drives plugged in and then shut down your computer? (proper shutdown, not forced) Does Windows safely unplug these drives automatically when shutting down?

Thanks in advance

Help me get my drive unplugged!

antifuse — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 00:35:51 -0800

How can I find out what application is locking my external USB drive in Windows XP? Ok, here's the long and the short of it: I've got an external hard drive (a normal 3.5" drive in a Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure). I've closed all the apps that have files open on said drive. When I try to "eject" it in XP (make it safe for unplugging) it says that an application is still using a file on the drive. How can I find out what application is holding that file open? I know, I can just shut down the PC, but I'd like to be able to disconnect the thing without having to shutdown every time! Are there any apps that tell you what file handles are open for each running process? I tried FileMon from SysInternals, but that tells you more as things are being opened, not after the fact what is being *held* open.