So I have found no shortage of frustration in both Windows and Mac OS when it comes to ejecting drives. In windows if you so much as have a Windows Explorer window open with the drive it will bitch and moan that it can’t eject it. The same can be true for Mac OS when an application is using something off the drive. I can’t be the only one who is baffled how a modern operating system can’t do something as simple as eject a drive… You know if I have gone through the trouble of doing the right thing instead of just yanking the cable, how about the OS just do what I want, or maybe, you know, tell me what application is causing the problem?
Well it looks like this feature is coming to Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) but in the meantime how can you eject your Time Machine drive without OSX crying it can’t? Well for as long as I could remember I would try and then just yank the cable if it was unsuccessful. Low and behold the culprit was finally determined.
If you are having trouble ejecting a disk on OSX 10.5 simply quit iPhoto and then try to eject your drive! Viola! Works like a champ for me every time. And now I don’t want to smash my Macbook Pro with a hammer when it refuses to do my bidding.
In Windows more often than not it will just be Windows Explorer. So if you can’t get that pesky drive to eject, try to close all your Explorer windows first then give it another go.