Windows 7 doesn't release USB stick - can't safely remove USB stick

Sometimes when I'm trying to safely remove an USB stick formatted with NTFS from any Windows 7 installation, Windows 7 refuses to release the USB device.
This occurs on host machines as well as on VM guest machines. When I'm attaching the USB stick to a virtual machine (VMware Workstation) and when this effect occurs in there I can see from Workstation's device manager that the USB stick is getting accessed
once every (approx.) five seconds. The USB stick shortly flashes up accordingly then, so there is indeed some access to the USB stick.
Now, this doesn't happen all the time. This effect only occurs, say once or twice a week.
Waiting for 5 to 10 Minutes, the low-frequent regular short flashing finally stops and I can safely remove my USB stick then.
Well, what I want to know: Which Windows service is sometimes accessing my USB stick in this manner?
This happens on several machines, some of them having almost no software installed.
When exploring the file handles with SysInternals Process Explorer, there's only a Windows Explorer handle attached to the USB device.
I suspect it might either be Windows Defender (having Search Removable Devices enabled), Windows Search or Windows Defragment. But this is only a guess.
Can anyone please enlighten me on which service is capturing my USB device for such a long time, keeping me from safely removing the USB device?
Microsoft Marketing should care for customer feedback on their consumer products, e.g.
Windows & Office.
Have had Windows 8 … went back to Windows 7.

Hi,
We can use USB parser in WDK8 or 8.1.
To install USB ETW parsers:
1.Determine whether you have 32-bit Windows or 64-bit Windows: ◦Open the Start Menu.
◦Right click Computer and select Properties.
◦Look at the System type field. (Note: 32-bit corresponds to “x86” for the downloads).
2.Install Netmon:
◦Go to the bottom of the Quick details on the Netmon 3.4 download page and press the Download button for your system type.
◦Download and run the exe. When it asks about setup type, Typical is fine.
3.Download and install the Windows Driver Kit for Windows 8.
4.Allow execution of PowerShell scripts:
◦Open the Start screen, type "powershell", right click on the Windows PowerShell result, and select Run as administrator.
◦Type or paste the following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force
4.Close the PowerShell window
5.Open a PowerShell window (you don't need to Run as administrator) and run the following commands. Adjust the path if you installed the kit to a different location:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Tools\x86\Network Monitor Parsers\usb"
..\NplAutoProfile.ps1
Now you're set up! You can now launch Netmon and open an .etl trace by selecting File -> Open -> Capture.
You can also use OneDrive to upload the trace file in forum so that we can help you analyze your problem.
If you have any feedback on our support, please click
here
Alex Zhao
TechNet Community Support

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To all the Gurus,
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Go to Solution.

You can call the SetCurrentDirectory Windows API function (see attachment), but if you follow the link you'll see it warns about using it in multi-threaded apps. I have no experience with it, so I can't comment.
Try to take over the world!
Attachments:
Set Current Directory.vi ‏11 KB

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*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
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Try a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.
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*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
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*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
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Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
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Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
*Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
*AdwCleaner: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/ http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
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How can i "Safely Remove" My Passport Ultra from my PC?

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No Icon to remove safely remove usb device when on...

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What can I safely remove?

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If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
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Can I safely remove items in /Library/Receipts/ ?

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I'm going to say "Nothing".
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Welcome to Apple Discussions!
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Clone your system to another hard drive adn then try, or clean it up after backing up with CCC
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Safely Remove USB Drives: Gnome

I am using Arch-64bit-Gnome3, Shell and other gnome defaults.
While trying to remove my External Hard Disk I noticed that there is NO "Safely Remove" in right click menu. Since I also use and have used other distros with gnome I know that this is feature has always been there. However, in Arch its not there by default. I don't know if this is the 'Arch Way'.
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Last edited by fantab (2012-06-23 04:20:47)

There are many threads regarding this. search the forums.
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Last edited by hadrons123 (2012-06-23 12:26:14)

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