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Cannot safely remove USB drives when Norton Ghost is installed
Hi Experts,
We have noticed an issue that we cannot "safely remove USB mass storage devices" when Norton Ghost is installed on the computer. We have tested this with multiple drives and multiple workstations. The problem is, even if no backup job is running (for example, the job finished overnight and we want to remove the external drive in the morning) Windows won't allow for a safe removal. We have pinpointed this to Norton Ghost as stopping the Norton Ghost service then allows for safe removal. If the drive is remvoed while the Norton Ghost service is running, it throws Event 57's into the Windows system log.
Anyone have any suggestions? I suppose the procedure could be to shut down the machine and then remove the drive. However, this isn't really practical on a machine that hosts files for other workstations and is staffed daily by volunteers.
Thanks!
We have noticed an issue that we cannot "safely remove USB mass storage devices" when Norton Ghost is installed on the computer. We have tested this with multiple drives and multiple workstations. The problem is, even if no backup job is running (for example, the job finished overnight and we want to remove the external drive in the morning) Windows won't allow for a safe removal. We have pinpointed this to Norton Ghost as stopping the Norton Ghost service then allows for safe removal. If the drive is remvoed while the Norton Ghost service is running, it throws Event 57's into the Windows system log.
Anyone have any suggestions? I suppose the procedure could be to shut down the machine and then remove the drive. However, this isn't really practical on a machine that hosts files for other workstations and is staffed daily by volunteers.
Thanks!
Lunda_Construction
have you tried going to Computer or My Computer and right clicking on the drive and telling it to eject?
ASKER
Yep, no dice as long as the Norton Ghost service is running. Norton supports answer so far is to stop the service . . . .
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ASKER
We are speaking with Norton Ghost support now. They acknolwedge that if the service is running, it is locking the drives. We've tested it on more than one machine. It appears to be "normal" but obviusly it presents a problem. Norton support is actually suggesting 'stopping the service' before removing the drives. Not exactly a smooth procedure for normal users.
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ASKER
Thought about it. Not sure how nicely Norton would play with that though, the service would need to be restarted right after. They are trying to remove one drive, and then plug the other in immediatly after.
Just have the script stop the service, pause for 30 seconds, and then start again. I admit this is not the nicest solution but should work if Norton support cant give you anything else.
ASKER
Its either that or always restart when removing the drives.
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ASKER
Well there is no point in keeping this thread open. We spoke with Norton support and they acknowleged the problem. One quick correction, this occurs on Windows XP but NOT Windows 7. Although Windows 7 can throw event 57's if the drive is unsafely removed also, Ghost does not seem to lock that drive in use. You can still safely remove the drive on Windows 7 once the backup job completes. On Windows XP however, as long as Ghost and it's affiliated services are running, the drive will throw an event 57 if the drive is removed (because you can't "safely remove" it while Ghost is running). Norton acknowledged it and said they were able to reproduce it in their labs and are supposedly having their engineering team look into it. If anyone runs BESR and has a similiar issue, it might be worth looking into as it appears the two programs share the same errors (if you google an error in one, you find threads about both). Will close this out and throw the points around to those who helped.
ASKER
Thx, see last thread for an update.