Safely removing external HDD that system says is in use by another program

When I try to remove Drive F at the Computer window, or from the taskbar, it
says "can't remove, in use by another program".

This became an issue after I ran Windows Backup for the first time. Earlier
backup was the Acer version. Acer's version backs up C partition and
records on D. Windows backed up C and D and recorded on external drive F.

How do I determine which program is preventing me from safely removing Drive
F?
Should I delete the Windows backup and use Acer's backup program
exclusively?
How do I delete the Windows backup?

------------------------------------
Acer 5735 4GB RAM, 2GHZ proc
Windows 64 bit Vista Home Premium

Post in reply to: popalong
Do you have any shared folders on the external drive? If yes, then you'll
have to "unshare" them before you can safely remove the drive.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/

Post in reply to: Kerry Brown
Please let me know how to identify these. I did a search for "shared
folders" on drive F and came up blank. --thanks--

Post in reply to: popalong
>

In the Start search box type

manage

Click on Computer Management. Expand Shared Folders then click on Shares. If
you see any shared folders on the external drive right click and pick Stop
sharing.

This is unlikely to be the cause though. If you had shared folders on the
drive you would already know about them.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/

Post in reply to: Kerry Brown
Here's the shared folders contents:

Share Name Folder Path Type Client Connections Description
ADMIN$ C:\Windows Windows 0 Remote Admin
C$ C:\ Windows 0 Default share
D$ D:\ Windows 0 Default share
F$ F:\ Windows 0 Default share
IPC$ Windows 0 Remote IPC

Did not see a stop option when I right clicked on F.

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