Help Please with my USB pen!!1

I have a small probleme with my USB pen:

When I try to disconnect it from the PC using the safe remove option I get the message:

The device 'Generic Volume' cannot be removed now try stopping the device later.

And I have to OK...

Then I wait for a while and try again ...but I get always the same message...you know sometimes I have to leave the PC room...and I don't like stopping it with the read light still flashing on it...I don't want to damage it...

Any help please on that...

and what If I just disconnect it ignoring the message...will I damage the USB pen...or the PC or Both?

help please.

Thanks.

Won't hurt the PC, but it well might be bad for the USB pen. I gather the pen drive indicates its in the read state all the time - is that correct?

If so, that's not exactly normal; it should be idle other than when you are actively writing to or reading from it, If you have a folder on the pen drive open,the drive is "In Use", whether or not you're doing anything with it at the moment. Be sure you are not accessing the pen drive in any way when you try to shut it down.

If I were having that problem, I think I'd disconnect from the internet, then shut down all running applications - leaving nothing in the system tray. Then I'd bring up Task Manager, and first look to see if there might be a running application which could be related - if any applications are shown as running, kill them, then see what processes were running, to see if a clue might lie there. If you don't know what process should be running, write down the entire list (with nothing running, it shouldn't be a very long list - mostly just legitimate components of your operating system).

My next step would be to shut the machine down. During shutdown, you might get a flag or warning giving a clue to the pen drive's apparently abberant behavior, or you might not, but be alert for such a clue. When the machine has shut down, physically disconnect the pen drive, then reboot the machine with the pen drive not connected.

While still disconnected from the internet, I'd bring up Task Manager again as soon as the machine has fully booted, and check the processes list again, comparing the reboot list to the previous prior-to-sutdown list, looking for a clue - something possibly related to the pen's activity - something present in the first list, but not the second.

I'd also try the pen drive in another machine, just to see what happens; if it displays the same behavior - remains in its read mode - odds are whatever is causing that is something about the pen drive itself. It might be a fault with the pen drive, or it might be something which is installed on the pen drive. If it does not display the same behavior, if it remains idle when not being accessed, suspicion turns back to the machine on which you originally noticed the problem.

Finally - though you might wanna try this first - I'd back up everything I wanted to keep from the pen drive to somewhere else(preferably somewhere external to the machine - external storage or removeable media), then fully format the drive, totally wiping it.

Once the drive has been fully formatted, reboot with it in place and see what happens. The now-empty drive should be recognized and mounted (present when you look in "My Computer"), but, without you actively accessing it, it should remain idle and not complain when you try to "stop" it.

A parting note: its not all that uncommon for USB drives to be or become faulty - if the problem remains following a full format of the drive, or if the drive resists formatting, odds are the drive itself is unwell.