Unable to disconnect my external hard drive!

I am unable to disconnect my external hard drive and WinXP tells me a program is still accesssing it. This situation happens even after I reboot. Anyone know how I can find out what is causing this problem? I don’t like to have to put my PC on standby or shutdown to be able to disconnect my external hard drive. Thanks.
Answer #1
just unpluig it it does not damage the HDD
Answer #2
just unpluig it it does not damage the HDD
isn’t the hard drive still spinning though?
Answer #3
I wouldn’t unplug it if I were you. You could damage your HDD permanently!
Answer #4
Do you have DaemonTools or Nero on your system? I had this problem once before. I was unable to safely remove my device. It was a while back and if my memory serves me correctly I believe it was because of a program I had installed. It was either Nero or DaemonTools. I can’t remember which one specifically but if it sure was one of the two causing my problem. Either way you need to uninstall the one that is causing your problem if you have any of them installed.
Sheep
Answer #5
Another program may be installed on your computer which have the possibility of using your HDD external. Try shutting down any program like “sheephead” said above.