Can't unmount USB volume

Kent Frazier kentfrazier at gmail.com
Sun Dec 19 10:46:10 UTC 2004


On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:57:53 -0800, Ed Fletcher <ed at fletcher.ca> wrote:
> Laurent CHARLES wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm facing a problem with my newly installed warty on a laptop HP zd7000
> > (zd7320ea). I can't unmount USB volume, neither from the gnome desktop,
> > nor from the command line.
> >  % sudo umount /media/sda1
> >  Password:
> >  umount: /media/sda1: device is busy
> >  umount: /media/sda1: device is busy
> >  %
> >
> > And when I try to get further information from the system...
> >  % fuser -m -u /media/sda1
> >  %
> >  % lsof | grep sda1
> >  %
> > ...nothing
> > The device is mounted and contains data
> >  % ls /media/sda1
> >  img_1631.jpg  img_1656.jpg  img_1675.jpg
> >  %
> >
> > Did anyone face the same problem (and solve it)?
> >
> > Thank you for your help.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > -- Laurent
> >
> 
> I've had this problem on my laptop too.  I was trying to unmount by
> right-clicking on the desktop icon for sda1 and the icon wouldn't always
> disappear.  When I got tired of trying, I just pulled it and let the usb
> drivers figure it out.  Didn't always have the files on the thumb drive
> afterwards, though.  So I'd sometimes have to stick it back in and copy
> the files again.  Seemed to be pretty random whether or not the files
> would be there and whether or not it would unmount.  

Sometimes, the changed aren't physically made to the disk until the
disk is synced.  That is probably why the files sometimes weren't
there when you pulled the device.  When you umount, the disk is
automatically synced.  To manually sync it, try 'sync' in a terminal. 
Then try umounting.

Kent




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