Quickly eject USB drives and devices with USB Disk Ejector

USB Disk Ejector ScreenshotDescription: USB Disk Ejector is a small, free program that allows for instant, quick 1-click ejection of a USB drive or USB device such as an Ipod or MP3 player. It also works when run from the device itself that you want to eject.

This is a no-install program that you can run from anywhere, including your removable USB media itself, that will present you with a list of all USB devices connected to your computer. A double click on any entry can then instantly disconnect your device. Here are some notes on this program:

  • If you have multiple devices connected, the default Windows XP doesn’t specify which one is which.With USB Disk Ejector you can hone in exactly on the device you want.
  • Because this program can disconnect the USB device that it is running from, it could prove very useful to put it on all your USB devices for use whenever needed. This may be useful when you are using other people’s computers and do not care to have to negotiate whatever configuration/version of Windows the machine you are using might be running to figure out how to eject.
  • Try ejecting with USB Disk Ejector if/when you encounter the dreaded "volume cannot be stopped right now … try later" message (see below), and let us know below in the comments if it works (for a related posting, go here).

try stopping the device later

  • Takes up about 8 megs in memory (but you only need run it when you want to use it).

  • Can be run from the command line with the following options: specify a drive name, partial drive name, drive letter, or the drive that the program is running from.

Note: this posting was re-written following some of the comments below, which is why some of them sound like they refer to a different text (they do).

Version Tested: 1.1

Compatibility: WinAll; tested on XP and Vista.

Go to program page to download (approx 467K).

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19 Comments so far

  1. moloch on January 3rd, 2008

    left click the little eject icon

  2. taffit on January 3rd, 2008

    Same effect when LEFT-clicking with the mouse on the icon in the traybar without taking up RAM, or do I miss something special about this utility?

  3. Chris on January 3rd, 2008

    lol taffit
    that tip is golden. thanks

  4. Samer on January 3rd, 2008

    Hah! You guys are right. I actually never tried left clicking the icon.
    This posting needs to be re-written. There is, hwoever, a value added in that you do not have to deal with Windows refusing to eject a drive and telling you that it cannot be done at the moment and try again later.

  5. Gennadiy on January 3rd, 2008

    Another way to call “Safely Remove Hardware” dialogue is to run the following command

    %windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

    I have a desktop shortcut with this command in its “Target” property.

  6. Ethan on January 3rd, 2008

    In vista you can also go to my computer, select the usb drive, and either hit the eject button in the right-click menu or eject in that menu above the drives.

  7. mr_step on January 4th, 2008

    The best thing about this over left clicking is it tells you the name of the device not something generic like “usb mass storage device e:”.

    Very handy if you’ve got two or more devices plugged in.

  8. joe on January 4th, 2008

    where is the download link?
    why is it hard to find on this site - - ALWAYS

  9. Tommy on January 4th, 2008

    joe: Yeah, the “Go to program page to download”-link is totally confusing. Does it send you to Amazon.com? Does it destroy your computer? Does it declear war with Norway? Or does it take you the the program page to download? I don’t know! Ahh! The headache! It’s all so HARD!

  10. Bruno on January 4th, 2008

    This seems useful for ejecting a drive from the command line, for e.g. at the end of a backup script that runs overnight, so the external hdd is parked / turned off after it’s done (in my case the alternative would be to leave it on for the entire day until I’m back home).

    @Ethan: Right click Eject does not work (at least on XP) for external hard disks, only for flash drives and stuff that Windows considers “Devices with removable storage” I think.

    @Tommy: at least on my firefox, the “download link” sentence is in a much smaller font, and right before the big black navigation banner, so, yes, it’s not that intuitive to find it (though once you know what to look for, it’s not that hard either)

  11. durerca on January 4th, 2008

    Thanks so much for posting this. I had just got back from buying a flash drive for my dad to use when I saw this post! This makes it much simpler for him to eject his drive then looking for the little windows icon. Also, the program may use 8MB memory, but it’s only running for the few seconds u open it to eject your disk so that doesn’t matter. For people like my dad who are still learning about using computers, this is a convenient, simple option.

  12. [...] eject USB drives and devices with USB Disk Ejector Quickly eject USB drives and devices with USB Disk Ejector Posted January 3, 2008 Comments(11) Description: USB Disk Ejector is a small, free program that [...]

  13. Anonymous on January 10th, 2008

    I downloaded this because I can eject an usb hard drive and didn’t want to turn off the computer, but it didn’t work either, it say I have a program using the drive and to close it first.

  14. John on January 16th, 2008

    What do you mean…Where’s the download link? If you have downloaded at least one item form here, you should remember where the download link is.

  15. [...] I wasn’t expecting that. Over the last few weeks, various big sites linked to the USB Disk Ejector. Many thousands of people have now downloaded the program and I am [...]

  16. Gaard on February 25th, 2008

    I love it, this little thingie is a blessing! Thanks, thanks, thanks, to creator

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  18. yona on May 27th, 2008

    if u cannot eject your usb drive, try Unlocker..it’s a great program..for winxp, vista version is not out yet..

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