Can't safely eject + black screen when logging off MS Account

[FenFox]

1.) So, I noticed that I couldn't safely eject 5 different external drives connected to my computer (Flash/HDD's) which is odd, so I decided to reboot and even after rebooting twice I still can't safely eject them. I'm not sure why that is? Rebooting has always fixed that problem for me if I can't find out what preventing a drive from being safely ejected.

2.) After that I logged out of my MS Account and my screen went black. I'm unable to see or control anything on my monitor (my computer is still on). Now, I'm sure I could probably power down and boot normally, except I have these connected devices that I'm unable to safely eject. What should I do?

 

[mnewxcv]

Are you actively moving or accessing files on the removable storage? If you are able to reboot or shut down the computer then the drives are not active and can be disconnected. The safely remove hardware feature in windows is really to prevent people from corrupting files being accessed. If you know the drive isn't in use, unplugging it shouldn't do any harm, unless you are running a program off of it.

 

[FenFox]

Are you actively moving or accessing files on the removable storage? If you are able to reboot or shut down the computer then the drives are not active and can be disconnected. The safely remove hardware feature in windows is really to prevent people from corrupting files being accessed. If you know the drive isn't in use, unplugging it shouldn't do any harm, unless you are running a program off of it.

I was not currently accessing or transferring anything from what I recall. But I read that even if you aren't accessing/transferring anything, if you can't safely eject and you unplug, you can cause corruption. But maybe shutting down completely then unplugging is fine.

I mean really, shutting down or restarting at this point is probably my only option since I can't see anything on my monitor anyway.

 

[mnewxcv]

I was not currently accessing or transferring anything from what I recall. But I read that even if you aren't accessing/transferring anything, if you can't safely eject and you unplug, you can cause corruption. But maybe shutting down completely then unplugging is fine.

If you shut down the system, there is no operating system running to access files or send commands to the drive. Perfectly safe to unplug from a system that is off.

 

[FenFox]

If you shut down the system, there is no operating system running to access files or send commands to the drive. Perfectly safe to unplug from a system that is off.

I think being unable to safely eject occurred when I went into the Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption screen, but I never even turned anything on. I'm speculating here, because that was extremely weird and I can't think of anything else I may have done to cause this since that was one of the last things I did do. In all my time using computers I have never been unable to safely eject up to 5 external devices connected--especially not after a reboot.

I still can't understand why logging out of an account would cause a black screen.

 

[mnewxcv]

I think being unable to safely eject occurred when I went into the Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption screen, but I never even turned anything on. I'm speculating here, because that was extremely weird and I can't think of anything else I may have done to cause this since that was one of the last things I did do. In all my time using computers I have never been unable to safely eject up to 5 external devices connected--especially not after a reboot.

I still can't understand why logging out of an account would cause a black screen.

not sure on the black screen. Is the computer completely stable? Having two problems at the same time could be instability. That being said if it isn't a stability issue, I would think the two problems are unrelated. Black screens usually are not related to storage issues.

 

[FenFox]

not sure on the black screen. Is the computer completely stable? Having two problems at the same time could be instability. That being said if it isn't a stability issue, I would think the two problems are unrelated. Black screens usually are not related to storage issues.

It's a new computer, but I've been using it for over a few weeks now and it seems stable. Never had any other issue apart from these two back-to-back situations. Not sure what I would test to make sure.