Fix ERROR_DRIVE_LOCKED (0x0000006C) – Disk Locked by Another Process

Yeah, this error is a pain. Let's get it fixed.

You see 0x0000006C pop up when you try to format a drive, run a disk check, or even just open it. Windows is telling you something else has a grip on that drive and won't let go. It's not broken. It's just locked. Here's how to break that lock.

Step 1: Find out what's locking the drive

Don't guess. There's a free tool from Microsoft called Handle that tells you exactly which process has the drive open. Here's how to use it:

1. Download Handle from Sysinternals. It's a single .exe file, no install needed.
2. Save it to a folder like C:\Tools\handle.exe. (Create the folder if you need to.)
3. Open Command Prompt as Administrator. Click Start, type cmd, right-click it, pick Run as administrator.
4. Type this command, replacing D: with your locked drive letter:

   C:\Tools\handle.exe -a D:\

   After you press Enter, you'll see a list of handles. Each one shows a process name and its PID (Process ID). For example: explorer.exe pid: 1234.

What you should see: If the drive is locked, Handle will show at least one process with an open handle to it. If you see nothing, the drive isn't locked — you might have a different issue like a corrupt file system.

Step 2: Kill the locking process

Once you know the PID, you can kill that process. But be careful — don't kill system processes you don't recognize. Common culprits:

• explorer.exe — This is your file explorer. If you have a folder open on that drive, explorer locks it. Close all explorer windows first. If that doesn't work, restart explorer: in Task Manager, find Windows Explorer, right-click, choose Restart.
• cmd.exe or powershell.exe — You might have a command prompt open inside that drive. Close those windows.
• Antivirus or backup software — Programs like Malwarebytes, Acronis, or Windows Backup often lock drives during scans. Pause or close them.

For everything else, use Task Manager to end the process by PID:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Find the PID from Handle. Right-click the process, choose End task.

After you kill it, try your operation again. The error should be gone.

Real-world scenario: I see this most often with external drives. Someone plugs in a USB hard drive, opens a file, then closes the file but the handle stays open. A quick Handle scan shows svchost.exe holding the drive because Windows Search is indexing it. Kill that svchost? No — better to stop Windows Search temporarily. Go to Services, find Windows Search, right-click, choose Stop. It'll restart on its own next boot.

Why the drive gets locked

Windows uses file handles to track everything open on a drive. When you open a file, the OS assigns a handle to the process that opened it. That handle prevents other processes from making changes that would corrupt the file. The problem happens when a process doesn't release the handle — either because it crashed, or because Windows thinks it's still needed. Handle lets you see those orphaned handles and gives you a way to clean them up.

Note: Some handles are expected. System processes like System or smss.exe might hold handles to the drive's volume, not to specific files. Those are normal. Don't kill System — you'll blue screen.

Less common variations of the same issue

Variation 1: Drive appears in Disk Management but won't let you format

If you get 0x0000006C when trying to format in Disk Management, it's often the System process holding a volume handle. Try this:

• Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
• Type diskpart and press Enter.
• Type list disk to see your disks.
• Type select disk X (replace X with the disk number).
• Type clean. This wipes the partition table — all data is gone. Then you can create new partitions without the error.

This works because diskpart bypasses the normal file system layer that holds the lock.

Variation 2: Drive is locked by a service you can't stop

Sometimes a Windows service like Volume Shadow Copy or File History locks the drive. Go to Services (type services.msc in Run), find the service, right-click, choose Stop. If you can't stop it, set its startup type to Disabled, reboot, then try your operation. Remember to set it back to Automatic after.

Variation 3: The drive is actually the system drive

You can't format your C: drive while Windows is running — that's by design. The fix here isn't to find a handle. You need to boot from a Windows installation USB, choose Repair your computer, then open Command Prompt from Troubleshoot > Advanced Options, and run your disk commands there.

Prevention — stop it from happening again

• Always safely eject external drives. Right-click the USB icon in the system tray, choose Eject. This tells Windows to release all handles.
• Close all file explorer windows before you try to format or dismount a drive. Every open folder keeps a handle.
• Disable Windows Search indexing on removable drives. Go to the drive's properties, uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed. This stops svchost from locking it during indexing.
• Don't leave command prompts or PowerShell windows open with the drive as your current directory. That's an easy one to miss.
• Run Handle first every time you see this error. It's faster than rebooting and you learn something about your system.

That's the whole fix. You don't need any special tools beyond Handle and a bit of patience. The error is almost never a hardware failure — it's just Windows being overly protective. Now you know how to talk it into letting go.