“Windows can’t stop your ‘Generic volume’ device because a program is still using it. Close any programs that might be using the device, and then try again later.”It is possible that the system is still using the external device – for instance, a copy operation might still be in progress, or Windows is still indexing the contents of the drive in the background or it could also be that the drive is not configured to be quickly removed. To fix this error, there are a couple of suggestions you can try. You can try to close all the open programs and file explorer windows, or you could also configure the Device Removal Policy or change its file system to FAT32. In addition, you can also try to change its drive letter or use the DISKPART utility to get the drive to be offline or simply manage the hogging process that prevents it from being safely removed. Follow each one of the given potential fixes below to resolve the error when using the Safely Remove Hardware feature.
Option 1 – Close all the open programs and File Explorer windows
The first thing you have to do to resolve the error is to close any open programs as well as File Explorer windows. This is because there are some programs and File Explorer instances that could be using the external device in the background which explains why you’re getting the error when you try to safely remove your device.Option 2 – Try to configure the Device Removal Policy
The next thing you can do is to configure the Device Removal Policy. How? Refer to these steps:- Open File Explorer and right-click on the drive where you encountered the error.
- Next, select Properties from the context menu.
- After that, navigate to the Hardware tab and select the disk drive where you got the error under the “All disk drives” section.
- Then select Properties under the Device Properties section. This will open a new mini window and from there, select Change Settings on the bottom portion of the window.
- Now navigate to the Policies tab and select the “Quick Removal (default)” option under the Removal Policy section.
- Click on the OK and Apply buttons to save the changes made and then see if the error is now fixed.
Option 3 – Try to manage the hogging process
You could also try managing the hogging process to get rid of the error.- Tap the Ctrl + Shift + Esc key combination to open the Task Manager.
- Then look for the running processes and programs that are hogging your USB storage device. If there is a program that’s using your device, it will hog on some Disk or CPU while transferring data and interacting with the device which is why you’re getting an error when you safely remove the device.
- Next, select the concerned processed and right-click on each one of them, and then select the End Task or End Process option. You can also restart the Explorer.exe process and see if that helps.
Option 4 – Try to change the drive letters
- Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run utility and then type “diskmgmt.msc” in the field and click OK or tap Enter to open Disk Management.
- Next, look for your USB storage device using the drive letter that’s assigned to it. Right-click on your device and select the “Change Drive Letter and Paths…” option.
- This will open a mini window and from there select the drive letter you want to change and click on the Change button.
- After that, another smaller window will appear where you’ll have to select the new drive letter from the drop-down menu.
- Click OK and if you got a warning prompt, just click on Yes.
- Now restart your computer.
Option 5 – Try using DISKPART utility to get the drive to be offline
The next thing you can try to resolve the issue is to use DISKPART. Refer to the given steps below to do so.- Tap the Win + R keys to launch Run and then type “cmd” in the field and tap Enter or click OK to open an elevated Command Prompt.
- Next, type and enter this command to execute it: diskpart
- The command you entered will initiate the DISKPART utility. After that, type and enter this second command: list disk
- Next, type and enter this third command: list volume
- The commands you just executed will help you in either listing all the Disk connects or all the partitions on those disks formed and from there, you need to select one command depending on the “list” command you entered. You can execute either of the two following commands:
- select disk #
- select volume #
- After that, it will select the Disk or Partition you want to select.
- Now type either one of the following commands:
- offline disk #offline volume #
- The command you entered will mark the selected disk is Offline. Afterward, try to safely remove your USB Storage device. Just remember that when you plug it back in again, you have to carry out the same method except for the last given command as this time you will have to enter either of these commands in order to get your USB storage device back online:
- online disk #
- online volume #
Option 6 – Try to change the file system to FAT32
If you keep getting this error on a particular USB device, you might have to format the disk and change its file system to FAT32. Make sure that you copy its contents safely into another location before you format the disk. Keep in mind that formatting the disk will remove all the contents of your drive.- Open File Explorer and right-click on the drive where you got the error and then select Format from the context menu.
- Next, in the newly opened mini window, select the FAT32 (Default) option from the drop-down menu under File System.
- Now check the Quick Format checkbox and then click on the Start button to start formatting your drive.

Microsoft’s initial Windows 11 hardware requirements were not really well received by users and they were not really clearly represented from the start making a lot of potential customers slowly drift away from the hype.
It seems that Microsoft has acknowledged this since they have changed their tune about system hardware requirements for the upcoming Windows 11.
It seems that Windows 11 will be able to be officially installed on unsupported computers but with a little inconvenience.
This error is very frustrating and it annoys pretty much anyone who encountered it but do not worry we have a solution for you.
First thing is to confirm the error prompt, Click on the OK button and then on X to exit Windows 10 installation wizard. Click on yes to confirm that you want to exit the setup.
You will find yourself in original installation windows.
On that screen choose and click on Repair your computer. Choose an option screen that will pop up, click on Troubleshoot. In the advanced options, click on the command prompt.
Once you are in command prompts type DISKPART and hit ENTER
In the diskpart prompt type LIST DISK and hit ENTER again.
type SELECT DISK #, where # is listed disk number where you would like to install Windows.
type LIST VOLUME in order to list volumes in the selected disk and hit ENTER
You need to select the volume on which you would like to place your WINDOWS, to do this type in SELECT VOLUME #, where # is the listed number of the volume
Finally, type FORMAT FS=NTFS and hit ENTER
You have successfully formated a given volume, you can now exit DISKPART and return to setup, to exit DISKPART simply type exit and hit ENTER.
Leave command prompt as well by again typing exit and hitting ENTER
You will be returned to Choose an option screen, click on Turn off your PC.
Your drive has been successfully formatted and it is ready for clean Windows installation, you can now restart your Windows 10 installation and the process will complete without errors. 