3 Simple Ways to Unmount a Drive

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Remove drives and disks in Windows, macOS, and Linux

Written by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: July 26, 2024 Fact Checked

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Using Windows

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Using Mac

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Using Linux

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

Do you need to unmount a disk or flash drive from your computer? Unmounting a drive is the same as ejecting a drive. With most devices, you cannot unmount your computer's main hard drive (the hard drive where your operating system is installed). This wikiHow will show you how to unmount a drive on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

Unmounting a Disk or USB Drive

If you're using Windows, right-click the drive in File Explorer and click Eject on the Manage tab. On a Mac, open the Finder and click the eject button next to the drive. To unmount in Linux, use sudo umount followed by the mount point.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Using Windows

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1
Open the File Explorer. Right-click the Start menu and select File Explorer.
- On Windows 7 and Vista, click Computer in the right column.
- Alternatively, press the Win key.
- If you need to remove or replace a physical hard drive built into your computer, see this article instead.
This may also look like Computer or My Computer.

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3
Click the drive you want to unmount. A list of all currently active drives will be available under the "Devices and drives" header.
- This drive must be either a removable drive (e.g., a flash drive or SD card) or a secondary internal drive.
4
Click ⏏ Eject. This will be in the Drive Tools tab. If you aren't already on this tab, click it to navigate there now.
- Once you click Eject, you'll see the drive's icon disappear from the File Explorer window, and a notification letting you know that it's safe to remove the drive will appear.
This will complete the unmounting process.
6
Unmount and unassign the drive (optional). If you want to change or remove the drive letter, you can use the Disk Management app. This is helpful if you have a lot of partitions or volumes, or if you'd rather manually mount the drive yourself. Do the following:
- Press the Windows key + R to open the Run menu.
- Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
- Right-click the drive.
- Click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
- Click Remove.
- Click Yes.
- Close Disk Management.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Using Mac

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This can be found in the Dock.
2
Click ⏏ Eject next to the drive. You can find this in the left panel. This will safely disconnect the drive from your device.^{[1]
X
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- Alternatively, you can drag the drive to the Trash to quickly eject it.
This will complete the unmounting process.
4
Unmount a disk without ejecting it (optional). If you want to unmount an internal disk drive, do the following:
- Open the Disk Utility app.^{[2]
  X
  Research source}
- Select the disk or disk set you want to unmount.
- Click Unmount.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Using Linux

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Open the Terminal. On most devices, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T.
2
Type df -h and press ↵ Enter. This will list all human readable drives on your system.
- Take note of the drive's path.
3
Type sudo umount followed by the drive's path. You must have superuser privileges to do this.
- Note: The command is umount, not unmount.
The drive will be unmounted.
This will complete the unmounting process.

Community Q&A

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Question

How do I fix an unmounted hard drive disk utility on my MacBook Pro when it doesn't show up anymore?

Community Answer

Look for errors in the hardware (look for problems in the physical drive or drive connector). It usually does that when there is a physical error so try connecting the drive to a different computer to see if there are any problems.

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Question

How do I dismount a drive that doesn't have an "eject" button? On This PC, nothing happens if I click on the popup in the taskbar.

Community Answer

You can right click on the partition and press eject. Or rght click on 'My Computer', and select manage>Storage>Disk Management>.

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Tips

On Windows, you can unmount a drive by clicking the USB icon in the bottom-right side of the screen and then clicking Eject.

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