Unplug or eject hardware

[saneiac]

I have an IBM thinkpad laptop running Win2000, with a slot that holds an interchangeable 2nd hard drive or CD/DVD drive.  About 20% of the time, I can use the unplug or eject button on the task bar to stop whichever drive is installed and switch them.  The other 80%, I am told that the drive is in use and cannot be stopped, try again later.  This occurs even if I close all visible applications.

Is there a way to find out exactly which application or process is using the drive, so I can decide whether or not it is safe to stop it?

[guestolo]

Use task manager and see if you can identify which process is causing problems

By trial and error, you may be able to end process on a process that may be causing problems
Post back and let us know what process it is

Or for a better process viewer, try
Process Explorer v11.04