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[soms]

I found this handy for those occassions where for some reason the "Safely remove hardware" icon doesn't appear in the system tray yet you have hardware you really ought to "eject" prior to removal such as our USB flash drives, external disc drives etc just to make sure all is OK.

This saves you having to shut down or reboot (to see if the tray icon reappears) if you are fussy about not just unplugging and hoping for the best.

This web page details the 30 second process of creating an icon in Windows XP to the Safely Remove Hardware window.

I thought it might be useful for that occassional time where the tray icon isn't at home.

http://www.neilturner.me.uk/2007/Apr/05/create_a_safely_remove_ha.html

*Edit*

After using the shortcut the tray icon will reappear and of course it is absolutely fine to use a shortcut for convenience and ignore the tray icon if you please.

I am not sure if this works in Windows 2000, since it supported this feature as is architecturally similar to XP.
I would think that there is a different way of doing it in Vista, since they changed so much.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[dave.m]

Thanks for that tip, Soms.
My icon often disappears from the notification tray and it can be a pita going to Taskbar properties etc because that does not always bring it back up.
Just made a shortcut and it is handy.
dave

[UncleUB]

Just a question,if I connect an mp3 player to usb port do I have use the remove hardware safely icon or just unplug it.After I have unpugged it can I connect a pen flash drive to the same port or do I have to use another usb port?

[soms]

@UB

Normally the standard MP3 players appear as a disk drive (in the same way as a flash drive) in Windows. If this is the case, then when you have closed your media player you should use the Remove Hardware thing before unplugging it.

The reason being is that you can be sure that all the data writes have taken place and that no programs are still accessing it. If you get the message "this device cannot be stopped" then normally a program or process is still running which is accessing the device.

Once removed then you are quite free to plug something else into the same USB port.

*Edit*

Of course some players do not use this feature. Notably the iPod which is ejected from within iTunes. I think most do though, since they are designed for use in Windows such as with Windows Media Player for syncing and so on.

@dave.m

No probs, I thought it might be helpful since for whatever reasons the tray icon does dissapear

[UncleUB]

Thanks soms 

[jazz]

I read your posting yesterday and thought that it looked interesting but I have never come across this problem.  Then today I lost my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon!!  Thanks for your help in finding a way of dealing with it!! 

[oldfogy]

@ Soms

Once removed then you are quite free to plug something else into the same USB port.

I have in the past tried plugging into the same USB port that had just been shutdown, but what I found was that the port did not reappear until the PC was re-booted.

Basically when you chose to shut down the USB item, you are disconnecting the drive.

[soms]

@ Soms

Once removed then you are quite free to plug something else into the same USB port.

I have in the past tried plugging into the same USB port that had just been shutdown, but what I found was that the port did not reappear until the PC was re-booted.

Basically when you chose to shut down the USB item, you are disconnecting the drive.

That is interesting and something I have never experienced or heard of before.

Say with USB flash drives and so on, once "removed" I have not had any problems immeadiately inserting another device into the same USB port.

Perhaps it is a case of the hardware and scenario in question, clearly all computers are not the same and nor to they behave so.

[oldfogy]

Just removing the flash drive and plugging something else in has never been a problem,
"unless" the remove hardware option  has been used.

Remember you are actually removing the hardware.
The hardware you are removing is could well be the USB drive, the flash drive is only shown as a indicator of what and where it's plugged into.
"Safely Remove Hardware"

However as you say,

clearly all computers are not the same and nor to they behave so.

So providing we are aware of this, it should not then be a problem.

[jelv]

Doesn't right click, Eject in Windows Explorer do the trick?

[soms]

Doesn't right click, Eject in Windows Explorer do the trick?

Right clicking and selecting Eject dismounts the drive volume, however the drive remains as an empty drive. When you click on it it doesn't remount and just says "insert disc into drive...".

The eject feature works fine with CD/DVD drives and Zip drives as it does physically eject the disk. But on USB flash you'll still have the drive left behind and the drive does still appear in "safely remove hardware" although if it has been dismounted I expect just unplugging it would be fine.