Can't remove external drive

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

I was trying to remove my external drive. I clicked on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon and then the "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device - Drive(H:)". I get the message the device cannot be stopped now. I waited and tried again. Same thing. I ran a program that tells me what has it locked. It is Norton Internet Security which has the file symefa.db locked. I don't understand! Why is Norton putting anything on my external drive? And why can't I remove the drive? My system is idle. Last full scan was a couple days ago.

 

I shouldn't have to reboot the system to remove my external drive.

 

Symantec, this is shameful! If you are going to put something on the external drive, you need to have a good reason. Even if you do, you need to have a way for me to remove the drive so I can move it.

 

I couldn't find anything on this on your forums or a solution on google or anything in the registry that controls where you put symefa files.

 

Help anyone?

 

Thanks.

 

Charley

2

Charley,

 

It may be due to the Removable Media Scan still running in the background, scanning your external drive for threats. Check if removable media scan is enabled and try to disable the Removable Media Scan under Real time Protection(in the Computer pane, click Settings) before you remove the external drive. 

 

Yogesh

3

It might not have put anything on the drive, but a file in the program itself may have stuck for a reason while trying to scan the drive.  If you can give us a few minutes, and provide us some information on your system: operating system, service packs, whether the external drive is NTFS or Fat32, someone on the forum will have a crack at working out where the problem lies.

 

Also please check under Help & Support>about for the version number of your Norton product.

 

This isn't a problem that I have seen on the forum before.

 

 

Thanks Yogesh, didn't see you posting.

Message Edited by delphinium on 05-17-2009 10:32 AM
4

Did the Removable Media Scan information help the situation?  Thanks.

5

Thanks for all your suggestions. Next time it happens, I will try some of them. Norton support also responded that the tamper proof protection (in Miscellaneous settings) can sometimes cause this behavior. So the next time, I will what turning off various things does.

 

Thanks all.

 

Charley

6

Thanks; we will be on the look out for the information and if I see any from somewhere else, I will pass it on to you.

7

Wouldn’t it just be easier to right click on  the Norton Icon on the task bar and and bring up the menu, then click on Disable AntiVirus Auto-Protect?


He could just choose to disable  Norton permanently until he uninstalled the drive.
When he’s done he could just enable Norton again…

Message Edited by itsme on 05-17-2009 03:31 PM

8

Hi Charley000, welcome to the Forum.

 

Depending on your operating system and the way your external drive is configured, NIS might not categorize it as "removable media". On my PC,  flashdrives and compact flash memory cards are considered removable media.  However,  to keep NIS from scanning my external hard drive, I have to go to "Scan Exclusions" and put in the external drive letter.  In your case,  you'd enter: H:\ and make sure that "Include Subfolders" is checked.

 

(Edited to correct typo)

Message Edited by Marty on 05-17-2009 04:23 PM