Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Ext. HD Help - Can't stop on demand

Dec 21, 2006 4:43AM PST

I'm running windows xp pro, and have a Western Digital 250GB External Hard drive.

My problem is that when I want to shut down, I usually get a message saying "The device "generic volume" cannot be stopped now. Try again at a later time" or something to that extent. Is there something I can do to fix this? I speculate something may fix it below, but I'm not sure. I'd like to leave it as recognized as a Hard Drive Disk, however, I would like to stop the hard drive on demand so I can shut it off more often.

When I first bought my HD, I had to format it in a way so that my laptop would recognize it. Now under My Computer, it shows the external HD as a Hard Drive Disk, and not removeable storage, which I think can help out my problem.

Thank you in advance for the help.

Lou

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
From memory.
Dec 21, 2006 6:32AM PST

I remember that is System Restore is enabled on said drive... you get that message.

Bob

- Collapse -
Thanks!
Dec 22, 2006 6:54AM PST

I do remember seeing/reading that somewhere. I didn't realize that this was the result. Would you happen to know how to turn off that "system restore" option, has I already have an internal hard drive dedicated to this?

- Collapse -
Try assigning it a permanent drive letter.
Dec 22, 2006 7:58AM PST

External hard drives present a similar problem with System Restore.
System Restore by default will try to monitor every partition it sees.
In the case of an external drive, assigning a permanent drive letter can
sometimes keep System Restore from monitoring it.

Bob