Microsoft does not provide ways to eject USB flash drives with a single click, or automatically. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the #1 method for expanding storage in Windows, yet Microsoft makes ejecting a storage device such a manual process! Frustrating to many, like you, because you are here. {wink}

Today we cover how to eject a USB flash drive in Windows in the command prompt. In addition, this article also provides a software way to eject a USB flash drive with the single click of a button. Yes, that is right, a single click!

Let us start by covering how to eject a USB drive using the command prompt.

Like mentioned above, Microsoft does not make this easy. The user must get into DiskPart, list the volumes (drives) connected, select the specific volume (drive) then eject by typing “release.”

The above commands may be performed via the command prompt, but honestly it’s a pain because all the typing involved and manually selecting the device. This process needs to be automated. {hint}

If you are reading this article you want to make things quick, easy and simple.

Nexcopy solved this problem with a free utility that doesn’t require installation, doesn’t require Admin rights, and doesn’t require you to select the drive. The tool is ultra-quick and ultra-easy. In addition, anyone can bundle the free exe file into their own software to automate the process.

The free software tool is called USB Eject Button

Here is the download link to eject USB flash drives from Windows command prompt

Below is the command prompt using a single word to eject a USB flash drive. The command is “release”

However, what if multiple USB flash drives are connected? Is it still just as easy to eject all the USB flash drives? The answer is yes. The USB Eject Button tool works by automatically selecting the last USB flash drive connected to be the first USB flash drive ejected.

Below is an example. We connected “Drive One” first, then “Drive Two” and finally “Drive Three.”

We then ran the command to eject the USB flash drives. The tool ejected; Drive Three (F), then Drive Two (E) and last, Drive One (D).

Again, Nexcopy provides this tool for free and doesn’t require installation, doesn’t require Admin rights, and doesn’t require a User to select a drive. The tool is free to bundle with other applications if one chooses.

The USBEjectButton.exe file used for the command prompt, has a very slick graphical user interface. Simply download the zip file and extract it to any location. Then make a shortcut to the exe file and place the shortcut on your desktop, or better yet, the taskbar in Windows.

The USB Eject Button tool is designed so when a User clicks the shortcut icon, that click triggers the ejection process and ejects the USB flash drive. Simple – Slick – Instant

There is even a Windows happy sound so the User knows it happened.

With the shortcut in the dashboard of Windows it is now possible to eject a USB flash drive from Windows with the single click of a button! Brilliant.

Here is a video showing the process of ejecting a USB flash drive with the single click of a button, along with ejecting the USB flash drive in the command window.

So what does this USB Eject Button do if there is no USB flash drive connected? If there is no flash drive connected and the user clicks the shortcut link, then a Nexcopy website page appears in your default browser.

The website page provides information about different Nexcopy USB products. Given Nexcopy put in the work to make such a nice, simple and free utility, this is not that intrusive. The webpage lists the four different types of flash drives Nexcopy offers:

• Copy Secure drives which are USB flash drives that provide copy protection to MP4 video files, MP3 audio files, PDF files, HTML pages, Text files, image files and more.
• Lock License drive; a technology having the default state of the USB stick as write protected (locked) and the user can programmatically unlock the drive.
• Disc License drives which create true USB CD-ROM flash drives from an ISO file. This is not a software solution, but a hardware solution.
• USB encryption flash drives which protect all content with a password and strong AES encryption technology.

Source: Eject USB flash drive from command line in Windows

This how to tutorial describes a simple way to check for bad sectors on a USB flash drive. The instructions below will also fix any bad sectors, if possible, during the scanning process.

A bad sector on a flash drive is a portion of memory on the flash drive which cannot be accessed, written to, or read from and therefore cannot be used. A bad sector on a flash drive sounds easy enough to diagnose, but it’s important to know there are two types of bad sectors: hard and soft.

Physical damage to a USB flash drive will create a hard bad sector. A hard bad sector cannot be repaired or fixed and is typically induced from physical abuse. A good example: leaving a flash drive in your pocket and it went through the wash, or the device was dropped and hit the ground is such a way, physical damage happened to the memory.

A soft bad sector on a flash drive are memory logic problems. A soft bad sector can occur from a software or data error during the write process. In lower quality flash drives, it is possible the incorrect firmware was written into the USB controller ROM and thus creates instability via soft bad sectors.

Bad sectors cannot be repaired; however soft bad sectors can be repaired.

The soft bad sectors can be fixed by using the CHKDSK utility in the Windows operating system. This same utility will also flag any hard bad sectors not to be used again, and of course not repaired.

Some signs of a bad sector on a flash drive include:

• Cannot read a file on the flash drive
• A file location is no longer available
• Unable to format the USB flash drive
• A disk read error occurs during operation

In our opinion, run the check disk one time to see if your issue is resolved, but if subsequent scans are required, we recommend discarding the flash drive to avoid further issues.

Running the chkdsk scan is really easy:

Insert flash drive to computer

Using Windows Explorer navigate to the drive letter

In the Explorer window type cmd and press enter

Once inside the command line utility type chkdsk d: /f /r /x and click Enter. NOTE: *The letter d represents the drive letter of the flash drive.

• The /f parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds.
• The /r parameter tells Windows to repair/restore bad sectors (if possible).
• The /x parameter unmounts any “handles” to the drive or said another way, this step will not allow any other resource to access the flash drive during the scan.

Silicon Motion’s decade-long growth drives a 580% return for investors.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: SIMO), founded in 1995, has become a leading developer of microcontroller ICs for NAND flash storage devices. The company also designs and markets high-performance, low-power semiconductor solutions for OEMs. Among its customers is Nexcopy Incorporated, a Southern California technology company specializing in flash memory storage products.

Today, Silicon Motion holds more than 1,500 patents, with over 1,300 still pending final approval. Its annual revenue is around $540 million, underscoring the company’s strong position in the semiconductor and storage controller markets.

From an investor’s perspective, the company’s performance has been even more striking. A $1,000 investment made in August 2011 would be worth approximately $6,832 as of August 23, 2021—representing a gain of 583.19% over the ten-year period. This return accounts for price appreciation but excludes dividends, according to NASDAQ’s analysis.

Source: NASDAQ

Since August 2021: where’s SIMO now?

Back in late August 2021, Silicon Motion (SIMO) was trading in the low-$70s. Fast-forward to today and the tape tells a different story: as of September 22, 2025 the stock closed around $95, brushing an all-time closing high and marking a solid climb despite a very bumpy road in between.

What changed? The company kept shipping controllers—lots of them—and kept widening the moat. In 2024, SMI rolled out its SM2322, a single-chip USB 3.2 Gen2x2 portable SSD controller that hits 20 Gbps and scales to roomy 8 TB QLC builds. That’s catnip for phone-to-console workflows and the “throw it in the bag” creative set. Momentum like that doesn’t show up in a quarter; it shows up in a trend.

Then there’s the long game. At industry events in 2025, SMI teased a PCIe 6.0 client SSD controller (codename Neptune) with projected 25+ GB/s reads and 3.5 M IOPS, signaling where the ball is headed—even if broad client adoption waits until the 2030 window. It’s classic SMI: ship today, signal tomorrow, keep the design-win pipeline full.

Of course, it wasn’t a straight line up. The MaxLinear deal drama peaked and cracked (termination in 2023), sent the shares wobbling, and moved the fight to arbitration and courtrooms. Through it all, the company kept printing controllers, paying a dividend (announced $2.00/ADS for 2024), and talking product roadmaps—slow, steady, stubborn. That posture matters to multiples.

So where do we land versus that August 2021 snapshot? Call it this: SIMO today trades notably higher than those early-’21 levels, near record territory, after digesting a failed merger and a memory cycle. That resilience, paired with portable-SSD wins and next-gen PCIe signals, explains why the stock now lives closer to the mid-$90s than the low-$70s. In other words—Morris’ rule of thumb—execution begets altitude.

With in a few minutes of downloading Rufus one can determine the software does not make a USB CD-ROM flash drive.

We confirmed this with another article we found on the web from GetUSB.info and they explained how to burn ISO to USB. What they concluded, and so did we, is that Rufus will extract the content of an ISO file and copy those files to the USB flash drive, but the Rufus software doesn’t change the configuration of the device, to that of a CD-ROM.

What started this quest was not wanting to make a bootable Windows flash drive, but rather, find a way to make a USB read-only so the data on the flash drive would not be removed or deleted.

In addition to having the USB read-only for the content, it also makes things impossible for a virus to jump onto the flash drive and spread. Given (my day job) my company doesn’t want a flash drive with our content and logo to be able to spread a virus, so the only solution we found was making sure the USB stick was read-only in the first place.

GetUSB.info article explains what Rufus does and also how to make a USB CD-ROM flash drive, the right way.

Why hardware write-protected USB drives are critical for Industrial Control Systems.

Honeywell’s recent cybersecurity report noted that 37% of threats are designed to spread via removable media, nearly doubling from 19% in 2020. That spike highlights how USB flash drives remain a weak link in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) if not properly managed.

Honeywell’s solution, Honeywell Forge, is software that monitors connected devices and flags risks [Ref:1]. Monitoring is useful, but it doesn’t prevent malware from getting in. Prevention requires the right kind of media in the first place.

Air-gapped systems and the USB problem

ICS environments are typically air-gapped—they’ve never touched the internet. Updates happen through portable storage, usually a USB flash drive. If that drive is compromised, malware bypasses all other defenses and lands directly in the control system. The only effective safeguard is a drive that is physically incapable of being infected while in transit.

Software tricks—like setting a read-only attribute with DISKPART or flipping registry rights—don’t cut it. Those methods are easy to reverse and offer little real protection against a determined attacker.

A hardware-level solution

The Lock License flash drive by Nexcopy takes a different approach. Its write protection is enforced at the hardware controller level. Unlike software locks, hardware-level controls cannot be undone with a few registry edits. This makes the device far more resistant to tampering or malware injection.

The Lock License design also balances usability. A content creator can temporarily unlock the drive with a password to write new data. Once disconnected, the drive automatically returns to its secure state: read-only. That means you can safely prepare update media in a trusted environment, then deploy it to an ICS without fear of the drive being altered along the way.

Final thought

It’s hard not to ask: why weren’t USB drives built like this from the beginning? For ICS, where uptime and safety are everything, a hardware write-protected flash drive isn’t just a convenience—it’s a necessity.

Why Windows shows the wrong USB volume name—and three ways to fix it.

On some Windows 10 systems, a USB flash drive displays the wrong volume label in File Explorer—even though the name is correct in Disk Management. In some cases, every connected USB device shows the same (incorrect) label. If you’re seeing this, there are three likely causes. Start with the simplest first.

Why enterprises are turning to hardware-based write protection for USB flash drives.

Data protection and cyber-security have become inseparable from day-to-day business operations. In this article, Greg Morris, CEO of Nexcopy Incorporated in Southern California, explores the opportunities enterprises have with write-protected USB technology.

November 18, 2020

As the global economy leans further into digitization, intellectual property and sensitive assets are increasingly shared in digital form. That shift comes with higher risks. Data breaches, cyberattacks, and hacking attempts against individuals, governments, and private corporations have grown dramatically over the past decade. Reports suggest that a single data intrusion can cost an enterprise an average of $3.92 million in damages.

The stakes are clear: protecting digital data—especially confidential information—should be a top priority for IT managers. Without a strategy in place, an enterprise leaves itself open to cyber criminals who can exploit weak entry points to steal or manipulate information worth millions.

Cyber-security and endpoint data loss protection strategies need to cover all access points, including portable devices like USB flash drives. Employees require storage tools that are both secure and simple to use. Striking this balance empowers users while ensuring IT managers can safeguard the organization’s infrastructure against human error or forgetfulness.

Since IBM introduced the USB flash drive in 2000, the device has remained a primary tool for information exchange across industries—government, healthcare, finance, telecommunications, and manufacturing all rely on USB storage. While convenient, standard USB drives carry risk. Without built-in safeguards, they can easily become vehicles for leaking sensitive data.

Healthcare illustrates the problem clearly. Doctors often use USB drives to move patient data between offices and hospitals. Each site must remain secure, yet transferring files creates opportunities for malware to piggyback on the process. If a USB is read-only by default, malicious code cannot be written to it. After a network scan confirms safety, a password can unlock the drive to temporarily allow write access. By defaulting to write-protected mode, Lock License drives make it impossible for malware to slip in unnoticed.

Lock License drives automatically return to read-only mode whenever they are disconnected. This creates a smooth user experience—data can always be read without a password, while write access requires explicit authorization. Employees get the simplicity they expect, while IT teams benefit from reduced exposure to cyber threats.

The same principle applies in industrial settings. System control products—such as turbines, pumps, and wind energy motors—rely on firmware updates to function properly. Because these units lack interfaces to enter encryption passwords, encrypted USBs are not practical. A write-protected USB, however, is ideal. The system can pull updates directly from the drive, while the drive itself remains immune to malicious code injection.

Layered defenses remain critical for modern enterprises. Software solutions help, but locking down the most common physical entry point—the USB port—with hardware-enforced read-only devices adds another level of protection. Nexcopy’s write-protected USB flash drives fit into this broader strategy, helping both public and private organizations reduce vulnerabilities and maintain tighter control over digital assets.

Learn more about Nexcopy’s USB write protection technology.