Problems ejecting my USB flash drive

I recently acquired a USB flash drive which I'm using with my Intel iMac.
frequently, when I try to eject it by dragging the disk image to the trash icon (which turns into an eject icon for this purpose), I get an error message "The disk is in use and could not be ejected. Try quitting applications and try again.
I cannot work out which application I need to close ... I have been through every icon on the dock and made sure everything is shut - bar Finder and Dashboard which you don't seem to be able to close??
Any advice would be much appreciated - I'd like to just be able to eject the flash drive so it can be safely removed from the USB port, without having to shut down.

When you erase the drive, you'll see several format options. Mac OS Extended (and Mac OS Extended - Journaled) are the best choices, if you're going to use the drive with Macs only. If your going to exchange files with PCs, the DOS format is best.

Similar Messages

MSI P965 Neo-F (MS-7235) problem booting from USB flash drive

Hi, all!
I was wondering if someone can help me. I am trying to install Windows 7 x64 on my 320GB HDD that is connected to my MSI P965 Neo-F (MS-7235) mobo (The CPU is a Core2Duo 6600 with 6GB of RAM). I created a bootable USB 8GB flash drive using Microsoft's "Windows 7 DVD USB Download Tool" and bootsect.exe (Needed to create a boot sector on the USB drive) from the MS store. I successfully tested the resulting bootable USB drive using freeware MobaLiveCD (Sorry, you'll have to Google "mobalivecd" since this forum doesn't seem to allow external links) running under Windows XP SP3 x86 (32bit). Under MobaLive's QEMU, Windows 7 setup loaded its files and produced an error message basically saying that it could not install Windows 7 x64 under an x86 OS (No surprise there since QEMU is emulating a 32bit processor - The point is that the bootable USB drive I created works).
I then went into my mobo's CMOS and under Advanced BIOS Features -> Boot Sequence -> 1st Boot Device, set the value to "USB-HDD" and rebooted my machine. The USB drive probably was not detected by the mobo under that setting because it proceeded to boot from my HDD which is the 2nd Boot Device. I repeated the same process using each one of the four USB ports in the rear of the mobo (I don't have the optional USB panel that the MSI users manual mentions) to no avail. I also tried setting the 1st Boot Device to "USB-FDD" and repeated the process for each USB port but the mobo still will not boot from the USB drive (It does not recognize it). When I set the 1st Boot Device to "USB-ZIP" and rebooted, the mobo hangs after "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..." which is no surprise since I am not using a USB ZIP drive but a USB flash drive. It appears that under that setting, it recognizes that there is a USB device attached but it is expecting a response (From a USB ZIP drive). I had no idea it would be this frustrating to boot from a USB flash drive! If anyone knows how to make this mobo boot from a USB flash drive, please let me know. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Quote from: RemusM on 12-June-14, 17:51:30
The P965 Neo motherboard is 8 years old, so don't expect miracles. .... You need to format the USB stick in the proper way. You may use this utility to do it: hxxp://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/ Also, it's a good idea to use the first (USB0) connector (controlled by Intel ICH8) for the USB flash drive. Good luck.
Thank You for your fast response, RemusM!
I'm not looking for a miracle. I'm just looking for a mobo that does what it is supposed to do: Allow me to boot from a USB flash drive (I don't think that is too much to ask for even from a board that was made in 2006)!
Thanks for recommending FlashBoot. I see under their "Why FlashBoot" section that it "... does not shift to user the burden of choice between "USB-ZIP" and "USB-HDD" at format time and proper BIOS setup at boot time. ... and every USB disk is formatted in such way that it will work in every environment properly, regardless of current BIOS setting.", so I will give it a try and let you know about the results afterwards.

Problem with Lexar USB Flash Drive

I have a 2GB Lexar Firefly USB Flash Drive. It works fine, but when I delete files off the flash drive, the space taken up by those deleted files does not become available again for use. Any help??

welcome to macbook forum.
try to empty the trash before you unplug the flash, maybe that might help.
Good Luck.

Problem Copying to USB Flash Drive

I have a 2GB USB Flash Drive and successfully copied about 100 JPEGS (61 MB) by dragging them from iPhoto onto the flash drive.
I cannot drag any more photos. I get a message "not enough free space." However, if I go to "Get Info," it shows that the flash drive has a capacity of 1.86 GB; available space of 1.8 GB; and used space of 61 MB. Thus, there is plenty of space left on the drive.
Still, it will not accept any additional files – "not enough space available." What gives?
Thank you

It's likely that the Flash Drive is FAT32 formatted and you are exceeding the number of files allowed at the root level of the drive. Try creating a folder(s) on the drive and putting the photos in it (them).
HTH,
Frank

Problems booting from USB flash drive w/ SL

I used disk utility to create a bootable USB stick and restored the SL DVD onto it, but for some reason when I try to boot from the USB it doesn't work. When I reboot I hold down 'Option' and I choose the USB drive, but then the system just sits there with the white screen with the Apple logo on it.
Any ideas?
Using a 2010 MacbookPro.
David

Did you prep the flash drive properly:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

USB Flash Drive Problems

Hi
I have found 2 problems when using USB flash drives. I have a 1GB USB drive that works fine on my iMac running OS X 10.4.7. However, when I delete files on the drive, my USB space capacity does not free up. I realised that what happens is the files deleted get moved into a ".trash" folder which is invisible. I try to delete this folder, but do not have access rights to do so. My only solution is to remove the USB drive and plug into a PC to delete the files. Is there any other way around this?
Second problem. I have another 4GB USB flash drive. Once plugged into my iMac, nothing is detected. In System Profiler, I can see the device listed, yet it cannot detect the device as a USB mass storage device thus I can't open the drive in Finder to perform any file transfers. I'm sure i have the latest software drivers updated. Again, when this device is plugged into a PC, it works perfectly fine. What can I do?
Thanks
G.

Sorry, I meant if it was seen under system profiler that you could mount it under disk utility.
Open disk utility up and if the drive is listed on the left source list, highlight it and click "mount" near the top of the disk utility window.
You should not have to do this and I do not know why the drive is not mounting by itself, but this is a possible workaround.

USB flash drive won't mount

I have a strange problem with a USB flash drive which refuses to mount on the desktop of my MDD FW800. It registers in System Profiler but not in Disk Utility. I can't get it to mount using Terminal either. The Terminal screen says it has mounted but it doesn't appear on the desktop and I can't access it. However, if I do a restart with the the drive plugged in, it does mount. If I eject it and then try to plug it in again, it won't mount! Very frustrating.
It works fine on my Powerbook and my Digital Audio so it can't be the drive itself that's the problem. Not quite sure when this started but it may have been after I installed a PCI USB2.0 card (a Ratoc Rex-PCIU3). The card itself works fine with other USB products and I don't have any deep sleep problems with it either. I'm stumped.
Any suggestions anyone?
Alex
G4 1.25GHz Dual MDD FW800; G4 Digital Audio; Powerbook 800MHz DVI Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello rickame
Click on the desktop then go up to the menu bar and select Finder / Finder Preferences / General and make sure the box's are checked for Hard disk, External disks, etc.. then reconnect the drive. If you still don't see it on the desktop it may have been improperly disconnected from the iMac while mounted, look to see if it show's up in Disk Utilities and the System Profiler on the USB bus. If you are plugging it into the keyboard, try one of the USB ports on the back of the iMac or a powered hub. There also could be a conflict with other USB devices, try ejecting and disconnect things like an iPod, a printer/scanner or camera, then restarting the iMac and connect only the Flash drive.
Dennis

USB flash drive MAC and WIN

Hi All,
I have a problem with my USB flash drive- The files that I copy from my mac appear as multiple copies on the winXP computer and in Parallels, the ones that I copy from windows appear as locked Linux files!! on the Mac.
What is going on here ??
TIA
Pankaj

Your flash drive needs to be set to "Ignore ownership". With the disk selected, get its info window then look in that window fopr the ownership setting.
The reason you see two files on Windows is that the filesystem is seeing Mac resource forks for each file.
Yeah, Windows sücks. They pretend Mac does not even exist.

Problem Stopping Finder Copy to USB Flash Drive

I was attempting to copy my Pictures folder (about 4.5 GB) to a USB flash drive. It seemed to copy OK until it got about a third of the way through and then stalled. I selected the stop copy on the dialog box but nothing happened and the copy dialog box just became grayed out. I could not eject the flash drive either. When I used the Command-Option-Escape key combination, I was given the option to relaunch the Finder, which I selected but then was just left without the ability to use the Finder at all. I resorted to pressing the power button to shutdown and then restarted and was able to eject the flash drive.
Is the Finder capable of copying a file of this size? What causes Finder to freeze up on a copy operation? How else could I have stopped the Finder copying process once it hung? Thanks.
Regards,
Steve M.

Before trying the Safe Boot, I tried a different experiment. I just tried using the Finder to Duplicate the Pictures folder. It duplicated fine without problems. Then I repaired permissions on my internal disk and did a repair disk on my flash drive (no repairs needed). Then I tried to copy my Pictures folder to my flash drive again and the process hung right about at 600 MB of data transferred.
I know I'm using USB 1 and that's a slow connection. My previous flash drive was only a 1 GB so I typically never transferred very large files before. I think Finder is working as it should and that I am bumping up against some problem with USB 1 transfers or with the flash drive itself (it is formatted Mac OS extended). I'm using a powered USB hub to plug the drive into and I know the hub is working fine. I guess I could try connecting directly to a USB port on the iMac to see if that helps.
Regards,
Steve M.

Request BIOS to fix an USB flash drive boot problem in EFI (GE60 0ND-265FR)

Hello,
I'm currently trying to install Ubuntu on my MSI GE60 0ND notebook but I'm having troubles to boot on my USB flash drive in EFI mode.
I've disabled Fast Boot and Secure Boot options but the only thing I can have is the GRUB menu of the liveUSB and whatever option I try I always get a blank screen. On the other hand everything works fine when I set the BIOS on Legacy mode.
It's the same problem they have on this thread : https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=165756.0 but with an other notebook.
The problem is I want to keep Windows 8 side by side with Ubuntu so I must have them both installed in EFI mode.
I asked for help on a specialized forum (french Ubuntu's community) and they believe this problem is related to the BIOS. Do you think an unlocked BIOS will help with that ?
Here are my current BIOs and EC infos :
BIOS Version : E16GAIMS.514
BIOS Build : 03/12/2013
EC Version : 16GAEMS1 Ver5.05
EC Build : 02/21/2013
Thanks for your help, and sorry if I've made English mistakes.

i don't know if unlocked BIOS can help you with this

USB Flash Drive Eject

Hi,
I recently bought a USB flash drive (Sandisk Cruzer Micro) and i've been having some trouble ejecting it. When i plug it in, it works fine and I can drag files to it. I wait until the progress bar is complete (and then usually a few seconds after the progress window closes). The i right click it on the desktop and click "eject." For some reason this freezes up my computer for about 30 seconds which is really annoying, and it seems to happen every time. Is there anything i can do about this? Response is appreciated

Interesting idea. I tried doing that but all it did was make the Disk disappear from the finder. I did notice that there are some hidden files that are being created (not sure if it's by the PC or the Mac) which include "trash." Not sure if that means anything. other pausible causes: using the keyboard USB port, using PPC Word and Powerpoint (can't wait till they redo those)
Thanks for the responses btw

4GB Toshiba TransMemory U2M USB Flash Drive problem

I would like to ask you to get help about one of your products that i bought few months ago.
I bought a 4GB Toshiba TransMemory U2M USB Flash Drive (enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost)
Supports the ReadyBoost function of Windows Vista
Write Speed: up to 3.9 MBytes/s
Read Speed: up to 21 MBytes/s
Large storage capacity
award-winning premium quality
5 years warranty
Which of specifications are written as above.
After I bought this product I used it to save some documents which includes some very important documents for my studies.
Now I have trouble with the product and can not get my documents.
The product cant not response when I plug in to computer.
I tried Toshiba USB Flash Drive some other computers also but it cant response in any case.
Is there any way to solve the problem and get my documents back. It did not damage or break.
thank you..

Hi
Usually if the HDD would start to malfunction then the data on this HDD are not more accessible and in most cases you cannot backup this data to any other place.
Of course there are many specialists and companies who could retrieve and could save the data from damage HDDs but this is very expensive procedure and dont think its worth to spend a lot money for private data..
However, you can get in contact with an local ASP (Toshiba authorized service partner) if your Toshiba product start to malfunction and is covered by warranty..

Usb flash drive read only problem [solved]

Hi, im using spacefm, i have udevil and udisks2 installed, i can read my USB flash drive but i cannot delete files, i tried gparted that use spacefm as well and i can delete files from the usb flash drive with no problems, any ideas?
i solved i installed ntfs-3g and i can delete files again
thanks
Last edited by adcdam (2013-04-08 01:01:22)

I installed it and got this error : now my Macbook wont even see the flash drive...

IMac USB flash drive problem

My imac (os 10.6.8 2.5GHz i5) will not recognize my USB flash drive when I plug it into any port. Disk utility will not see it either. What do I do? I plug it into a friend's macbook and it is readable and writable there with NO PROBLEM... what's up with

Troubleshooting steps :
- Turn iMac off (Leave Off)
- Unplug Power Cord from Power Outlet or Back of iMac (Leave Unplugged)
- Hold Power Button on Back of iMac for 10 Seconds (While Unplugged)
- Let Go and Plug back in
- Turn computer on and see if USB Stick now reads
- If it doesnt read plug in other USB Port and restart iMac
- Open Finder and see if its listed under devices as unknown or other name
- If still unreadable (Try plugging in other USB Device)
- If other USB Device reads fine then its something with USb Stick only
Plan B:
- Plug USB Stick onto other Macbook
- Go to Disk Utility/Format USB Memory Stick as
- Safely Remove and Plug into iMac (See If It Reads)
- If still no read then your USB may not be readable with your Operating System or may be unreadable to the firmware specifically of that Operating system
- Compare with other Macbook and see which Operating System version the other Macbook may be under ie. (Version 10.6.8 or 10.5.8) etc if its different then u may have to return item and try other brand
- Try all the above and let me know

LG USB Flash Drive Problem

I have an LG 1GB USB Flash Drive, which has worked flawlessly for the last year or so. All of a sudden, just recently, it always takes two tries for it to mount. In other words, when it's inserted the first time it doesn't mount, but remove it and insert it again, and it mounts! I've reformatted it (Mac OS Extended), but it didn't help. I've also tried it on two other Macs, and it's the same thing. Any suggestions?

Hi anybody,
I have a similar problem with a flash drive. I was just using it on a PC, properly disconnected it from there and then plugged it into a USB hub I have on my Mac. Now it's dead. No light on the flash drive, no drive recognition in system profiler or disk utility and it's also dead on PCs now too. If I could format it that would be one thing but nothing recognizes it now. The files on there weren't life or death but I'd like to get them back AND not have to just throw away the flash drive.
Ideas??
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Problems ejecting my USB flash drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for