Can't unplug USB stick

[Frank4d]

I have W2K + SP4 on my work PC. Up until this week I could plug in my Lexar Jumpdrive 2.0 (256MB) memory stick, do my work, click the taskbar icon to unplug it, Windows tells me it is safe to remove the drive and everything was cool.

Now when I click the taskbar icon to unplug it, a window pops up, I select the USB stick and click "Stop" and nothing happens. If I unplug the USB stick anyway then I get a message that I unplugged it when it wasn's safe to do so.

I tested the memory stick on another computer at work, and two more at home so the problem is my work PC. Nothing has changed since last week except IT pushed a couple of Microsoft security patches.

 

[Frank4d]

Strangely (I don't know why), defragging my drive corrected the problem.

 

[Auger282]

the "safe to remove" utility (in my opinion) is more for External Hard drives (nonsolid mem), burners... BIG stuff that is more complex then a memory stick.

I've never had any trouble with just ripping out my memstick and as long as you know you arent doing anything with files and whatnot with it.. it should be ok to remove.