How to remove locked USB External drive

To safely remove the drive: Open Command Prompt (cmd.exe). Type diskpart. Type list disk. Find your disk #, and type select disk [number here]. Type offline disk. You should be able to remove it now. Next time you plug it in, it won't be automatically mounted. So either use the command prompt again to make it online, or: Run diskmgmt.msc. Find the disk, right click, and choose "Online".