With no specific cause. I find that logging out is the faster way to be sure it's safe to eject until I have time to research why it's happening. Remember there are so many prior discussions and so many causes that I can't give direction or guess with only what was written so far.
Try sharing a Web Speccy report from https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web so forum members can look around.
I frequently plug my external hard drive or USB drive into my laptop. It used to be hit or miss with being able to "Safely Remove Hardware" but now it never will. I have to shut down completely each time to eject them. Is there any way for me to be able to see what is holding the drive & shut down that program? Even if I don't access thje drive at all & just try to eject it, it won't. thx

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