Error Messages When You Try to Eject, Format, or Label a Removable Disk

When you attempt to eject a removable disk, such as a Zip drive or Jazz drive, you may receive the following error message: When you attempt to change the label or format a removable disk, you may receive the following error message:

This issue can occur if you log on to the computer using an account that does not have administrator rights.

To resolve this issue, change the local system policy or network policy to allow non-administrator accounts the ability to manage removable media. The following steps describe how to make these changes on a computer that does not have a domain policy applied to it.

1. Log on to the computer using a local administrator account or an account that has administrator privileges.
2. Click Start, click Run, type mmc.exe, and then click OK.
3. In Microsoft Management Console (MMC), click Add/Remove Snap-in on the Console menu.
4. Click Add.
5. Click Group Policy, and then click Add.
6. Verify that Local Computer is in the Group Policy Object box, and then click Finish.
7. Click Close, and then click OK.
8. Under Local Computer Policy, browse to the following branch:
   Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
9. Right-click the Allowed to eject removable NTFS media policy, and then click Security.
10. In the Local policy setting box, click the group you want, and then click OK. Your choices are:
    • Administrators - Only administrators can eject removable media.
    • Administrators and Power Users - Administrators and Power users can eject removable media.
    • Administrators and Interactive Users - Administrators and Interactive (Standard users) can eject removable media.
11. Quit MMC, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
    secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy
12. Restart the computer.

Note that the policy only mentions ejecting media that uses the NTFS file system. This is a documentation error. This policy applies to ejecting, labeling, and reformatting removable media that uses the NTFS file system or the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system.