Can't remove external USB hard drive safely after 5.1.889

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
21

nmb, but does it work for you?

22

Haven’t tried it. For that I have to setup things first. Will try and let you know.

23

Tech, I tried it 3 times now and it ejected each time (with rootkit scan disabled at start). I’m going to restart and come back to it later to see what happens.

edit: about an hour later now and still able to eject. seems like a workaround for now.

24

Thanks. Hope they consider this as only a workaround and find a definitive solution.

25

I’m almost thinking that if the USB drive is plugged in during the rootkit scan that there is a problem. Log doesn’t show any problems though. The rootkit scan seems to start about 8 minutes after the computer is rebooted and it’s duration is less than a minute (on my computer). I will keep testing this. Though my testing this doesn’t fix a thing. Just helps to understand what is going on.

26

Yes, the scanning is run on demand 8 minutes after logon.

27

So it seems that if the USB is plugged in during this scan that it causes a problem with ejecting later. So don’t plug it in until after the rootkit scan is complete (appr. 10 minutes after reboot). Kind of a pain for now.

28

Yes. Same problem in my computer.

29

At least I now have some sort of clue as to what is going on which makes me feel a little bit better about things. I now know not to have my USB plugged in between (approximately) the 7th and 10th minute after reboot or start up.

30

Question? Does the rootkit scan run 8 minutes after bootup or 8 minutes after user log in? I have multiple user accounts on my machine.

I’ll try some testing tonight.

31

I’m not certain if it is reboot/startup or logon though because I logon on immediately. I will test this to find out.

EDIT: Appears to be bootup.

32

+1

33

I’m almost certain it is 8 minutes after boot not 8 minutes after user log in, many rootkits aren’t reliant on a specific user so waiting for a user log in would seem to be wasting time.

34

The anti-rootkit takes seconds to complete rather than minutes, so it isn’t the need to wait for it to be completed that is the issue.

So what is it that you need to have this USB disk plugged in on boot or shortly after for ?
If you are going to be removing it after 10-15 minutes, presumably it isn’t needed all of the time.

What is wrong with the temporary work around until they have this problem tracked down and fixed, disabling the anti-rootkit scan, avastUI, Settings, Troubleshooting, and uncheck the ‘Enable rootkit scan on system startup’ option. That wording should also confirm it relates to system startup/boot and not user log in.

35

With multiple users, it is the first computer rule of the house to reboot when you are finished with your session. That way, it is assured the sandbox(es) are empty and the next user does not stumble on the trash you left behind.

Frequently, the next user in line wants to use the computer to transfer pictures/music/whatever to/from their phone/ipods. Or, maybe I want to run an unscheduled backup to protect irreplacable data.

No one should need a checklist and an egg timer to safely use a USB device. Nor should we need to disable an important part of security software.

If we had some input as to the priority of getting this fixed, it would be very beneficial.

36

I have the same problem, with just one minor twist. I have two USB HDDs, both made by WD. One is a 500G Passport USB 2.0 while the other is a 1TB Passport SE USB2.0/3.0. I only have problems stopping (ejecting) the 1TB drive. I have the problem on my WIN7 64bit laptop and my WINXP 32bit desktop. I can have both drives plugged in at the same time and still eject the 500G and not the 1TB.

Just some more info, hope it helps. BTW, I do use AVAST free on both machines, and have just finished spending a few hours going through my WIN7 with a fine tooth comb killing all indexing, searching services I could find.

37

I have the latest version 5.1.889 Avast free
Same problem on my pc XP PRO SP3, can not safely remove the USB flash memory problem occurs with the latest version of Avast

Windows 7 does not these problems with usb safely remove option I checked

This windows XP show when I try to safely remove usb flash memory in XP Pro SP3 (see picture)

38

when is this going to be fixed or should we skip this build coz rebooting to just remove an usb is getting frustrating

39

Here is the answer: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69367.msg587480#msg587480

40

My external USB drives can’t be ejected even with current version 6.0.1000, as of March 2011.

First, I don’t connect the drive until hours after my computer has been started and I’ve logged on (so the 8-minute root kit scan shouldn’t be a factor).

Second, all other precautions have been accounted for:
recycle bin disabled for drive,
indexing disabled,
drive optimized for quick removal.

Today, I’ve found the only solution to ejected a drive SAFELY (even when I disable all Avast shields and ensure that no processes are currently accessing the drive, unplugging it causes Windows Vista to dump all physical memory and shutdown/reboot/restart…this is really annoying…before I could unplug USB drives that WERE NOT safely removed, but the worst that would happen is that Seagate would warn me that a drive was corrupted (not true, verified by a full chckdsk scan).

Here’s MY workaround for ensuring that a drive can be ejected:

  1. Before even connecting the USB drive do the following:
    ----freeagentGOnextSERVICE—stop the service, using TaskMgr’s Services tab (if it even exists)
    ----disable *all avast shields (I just choose “1 hour” since my drives are only connected for 5 minutes)
    ----avast! antivirus— stop the service, using TaskMgr’s Services tab (not the avastGUI service, it doesn’t really matter)

  2. Connect the USB drive

  3. When you are ready to eject the USB drive:
    ----run processexplorer, search / “Find” all processes that start with “F:” or whatever your drive letter is
    ----Close / kill the 4 metadata processes
    -----then SAFELY REMOVE three times in a row (first 2 times, I get “drive in use / still in use” warning, but the 3rd time I got the all clear.

  4. RESTART avast!antivirus service (using taskmgr, Services tab)

  5. Enable / restart all avast shields again.

Does anyone think there is an easier workaround?
It would be nice to only have to, for example, disable the BEHAVIOR SHIELD before connecting the USB drive (even if computer has already been on for hours), in order to be able to safely remove the drive later, instead of having to completed stop ALL avast shields AND stopping the avast service in TaskMgr.