This wikiHow article teaches you how to unmount a hard drive connected to a computer. Unmounting a drive is the same as removing a drive. You cannot unmount a computer's main hard drive (for example, the hard drive where the computer's operating system is installed.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: On Windows
Step 1. Open the Start menu
Click the Start button (
or
) in the lower left corner of the screen.
You can also press the ⊞ Win key
Step 2. Open File Explorer
Click on the File Explorer icon
. Versions prior to Windows 10 will have the same name next to the icon as the previous image.
Windows 7 and Vista: Select Computer to the right of the column
Step 3. Make sure you are on This Team, Team, or My Team
The option will appear in the left panel.
The names differ between versions of Windows
Step 4. Click on the drive you want to unmount
A list of active drives can be found under the "Devices and drives" heading in the middle of the page.
This drive must be a removable hard drive (for example a USB stick or SD card) or a secondary internal drive
Step 5. Click on the Manage tab
It's in the ribbon at the top of the File Explorer window
In case the Windows version doesn't have the ribbon, just click on the drive
Step 6. Click the ⏏ Extract button
You'll find this option in the "Media" section of the ribbon
Step 7. Remove the drive from the computer
After clicking that button, you will see the drive icon disappear from the File Explorer window and a notification will appear telling you that it is safe to unplug the drive.
Carefully unplug the drive from your computer to complete the unmounting process
Method 2 of 2: On to Mac
Step 1. Open Finder
This app, which looks like a blue and gray face, is usually found in the lower left of the Dock.
Step 2. Locate the name of the unit
It will be on the left side of the Finder window under the "Devices" heading.
This must be a removable drive (for example, a USB stick, an external hard drive, or a virtually mounted drive)
Step 3. Click ⏏
It's to the right of the unit's name. Doing this will "extract" the drive, which will remove it from the drives available on Mac.
Step 4. Remove the drive from the computer
When the drive has been carefully unmounted, you can physically remove the drive from your Mac computer.
Advice
- In Windows, you can unmount a drive by clicking the USB icon at the bottom right of the screen and then clicking Extract.