I've spent a full day troubleshooting this, because I didn't try ejecting a drive for quite a while after upgrading to Home from Free.  So I was ruling out Windows updates etc one by one, with a dozen or more restarts, until I found this.

Windows 10 Pro x64, AMD 5950X CPU on MSI x570 mobo.  Reflect v8.0.7175 (same is problem with 7097 and 7167 which I also worked through.

To make a very long story short, I finally completely removed Reflect Free / Home attempted upgrade (which kept switching back to "Free"...) using Revo Uninstaller which also removed the dozen registry keys that the Macrium uninstaller leaves behind.  Then I downloaded Reflect Home and during the installation entered my Home license, and disabled Image Guardian but enabled VBoot.  I skipped MIG because I don't want it and thought it a prime candidate for causing drive lock problems.

But I still have the same problem that first appeared after my in-place upgrade from Free to Home:  USB external hard drives will not eject / dismount using the Windows Safely Remove tool or any of several other methods.  They drives become hidden but create a system hangup such that I can't connect a new USB drive AND can't reboot.

Returning to Reflect Free fixes this.  Installing Home breaks it again.

After uninstalling the fresh copy of Reflect Home now, Revo finds ~200 leftover registry keys and ~150 files in C:\Programs\Macrium still taking 22MB.  So the Macrium uninstaller is very poor.

Did you install CBT? I’ve used Image Guardian for years and haven’t ever had drive eject issues, just fyi.

+x

 

jphughan - 27 November 2022 12:35 AM

Did you install CBT? I’ve used Image Guardian for years and haven’t ever had drive eject issues, just fyi.

Can't recall if CBT was default installed on the Home version, but if it was an option then I skipped it.  I was trying to keep the package to the minimum as part of troubleshooting. It's not available on the Free one.

Another note (since for some reason we can't edit posts here):  the eject failures occur both with a mobo USB port and with adapter card USB ports.

[EDIT:  I see we can :-) edit posts.  Thought I checked those three dots a couple times... my error]

CBT is optional but installed by default. Editing posts can be accomplished by clicking the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of any post of yours.

There was an issue some time ago where CBT was causing issues with drive eject commands.

+x

 

Mack - 27 November 2022 12:26 AM

After uninstalling the fresh copy of Reflect Home now, Revo finds ~200 leftover registry keys and ~150 files in C:\Programs\Macrium still taking 22MB.  So the Macrium uninstaller is very poor.

I beg to disagree.  I think the Macrium Reflect uninstaller is excellent.  How did you respond to the questions it asked, for example, about which artifacts to remain.  It's easy to use the Reflect uninstaller when going down-rev to fix a problem, because by default it leaves lots of things like they were saving you a lot of work when you reinstall. Using the Revo-uninstaller is like taking a shotgun to a pistol shooting competition.   You may be actually causing problems when you use it. 


L.W. (Dan) Danz, Overland Park KS
Reflect v8.1.7638+ on Windows 11 Home 22H2-22621.2283+  

I agree with Dan. If “proper” uninstaller behavior were a matter of doing something so obvious as, “Delete this folder and this registry key with all of its subkeys and values,” then I have to believe that Macrium would be capable of coding their uninstaller to perform those tasks, and that the correctness of doing that would have been obvious to them in the first place. So the fact that the uninstaller does NOT do something that simple suggests that there may be more complexity to this than might be apparent to someone who isn’t a software developer. The fact that Macrium even has a KB article discussing some issues that can be created by third-party uninstallers reinforces that: https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/Anti-virus%2C+Registry+cleaners+and+uninstallers

Thus I refrain from immediately deeming the uninstaller “very poor” based on the evidence presented. If the uninstaller left services, background processes, and/or loaded drivers lying around, that would be of greater concern to me. But a registry key that still contains some items and 22 MB worth of files? Even if we assume that there’s no valid reason they were left behind, unless there’s a clear indication that those leftover items are having any impact beyond just sitting there consuming an inconsequential amount of disk capacity, those aren’t things that I can make myself care about in life.

•  Those who want to claim that a dedicated app uninstaller, after years of development, needn't remove useless registry keys and files on the C: drive are entitled to their opinion.  From that point of view merely disabling the service should suffice.

•  The culprit in preventing USB drive ejections is the CBT component in Reflect Home.  I've determined that by making another complete cycle through the upgrade installation paths from Reflect Free, as follows.

An upgrade directly within Free by entering a Home license key does not give the option of disabling CBT or Image Guardian.  So on my system it jams up the USB drive removal which as noted prevents even restarting the PC.

So I did another complete cleanout of Free, which btw found 81 registry entries left over and 42 files in C\ProgramData (not Definition files).  Then a full download of Reflect Home.  The setup sequence for that does allow me to disable CBT (enabled by default) and to omit Image Guardian, both of which I did.  Then I have no problem with USB drive ejection.

I had previously gone through all this but had suspected, focused on, and omitted Image Guardian - and then still had the problem.  So it's clear that CBT is causing the trouble.

I do have Image Guardian installed but NOT CBT and have no issues with USB drive ejection.  Just adding my 2 cents to confirm it is CBT that is causing the issue.  

I use IOBIT uninstaller (though I also have Revo - but an old version so I avoid using it).  IOBIT (like Revo) removes all (or most of - I am not sure) the little leftover bits after the Win uninstaller runs the uninstaller that comes with the program being removed.  Because the uninstaller is written by the software manufacturer, the quality of the uninstaller can vary based on the skills, effort, etc. the manufacturer devotes to this often overlooked part of the user experience.

I am not concerned with the few MB of 'stuff' that the standard uninstaller left behind.  But sometimes those registry entries can cause other programs to make false assumptions about the presence or absence of a piece of software and cause unpredictable issues as a result.  Removing any trace of a program (which IOBIT attempts to do) MIGHT prevent such issues. Also some programs may be left behind that run each time Windows starts.  While these leftovers MAY not cause harm - they might.

Unfortunately IOBIT aggressively tries to get me to upgrade from the free version to the paid version. I then have to use another program (Autoruns) to quickly find and disable IOBIT programs run at startup.  Autoruns.exe (Google it if you are interested) is part of the Sysinternals package and gives one control over each of the (hundreds of) programs Windows will try to run every time it starts.  They can be sorted and identified in different ways - including the software manufacturer.