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Thread: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

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    Registered User Easily Led's Avatar
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    Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    Help! Sorry to intrude into geek world but I am home alone right now and someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon from the bottom right hand bar of my computer. Where has it gone and how can I get it back and can I take out my memory stick without it ?

    Thanking you in anticipation (BTW I am not a geek as -you can tell - but I like to dance with them ).

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    Quote Originally Posted by Easily Led View Post
    Help! Sorry to intrude into geek world but I am home alone right now and someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon from the bottom right hand bar of my computer. Where has it gone and how can I get it back and can I take out my memory stick without it ?

    Thanking you in anticipation (BTW I am not a geek as -you can tell - but I like to dance with them ).
    gah - the right hand bar is the "system tray". a quick google search suggests this for getting it back...

    If you've seen the "Safely remove hardware icon" before, but it no longer appears, this method may work.
    Under Windows XP, right-click on the system tray (where the clock is).
    Ensure that "Lock the Taskbar" is not ticked.
    Select "Properties" and the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window is displayed.
    Under the "Taskbar" tab, check the "Hide inactive icons" box.
    The "Customize..." button is now active.
    Click "Customize..." and the "Customize Notifications" window is displayed.
    Scroll down to the "Past Items" group and you should see the "Safely Remove Hardware" option.
    Set this to the required value, then click "OK.

    The method described above may not work if the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon is shown as a folder rather than the correct icon. Try this fix:

    1) With a USB drive inserted right click on the drive in "My Computer" and select "Properties" then "Hardware"

    2) Click on your hardware in the list and select "Properties" again.

    (Alternatively you can double click on the drive in Control Panel>System Properties>Device Manager>Disk Drives)

    3) Click on "Policies". Normally the "Optimize for quick removal" button will be active - but don't change this. Instead click on the "Safely Remove Hardware" link in "Optimize for performance"

    4) Again select your hardware and click "Stop". Click "OK". This will stop your hardware and it can now be safely removed. This is a work around for the missing icon but you should not need to do it more than once - the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon should now appear normally in the Notification Area whenever ANY removable device is reinserted - hopefully for good.

    5) Make sure that the icon is not hidden in "Customize Notifications" as described above. This has worked for a USB flash drive (thumb drive) in XP but might work for other removable hardware as well. (e.g. use this procedure with a USB drive to fix the missing icon for removable CD / DVD drive on a laptop)


    and technically there is nothing wrong with just removing a USB drive - as long as it isnt writing anything to it at the time at least.

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    Registered User Easily Led's Avatar
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    Thank you very much I shall print this out for future reference but this morning it has mysteriously reappeared....... The ways of computers are infinitely strange ............. a bit like cats really, I say this as a non geek because almost every time I ask an IT expert about a problem they either say "Have you tried turning it off and on again", or "I'm not really sure, lets try this.....". This case is obviously an exception and thank you again .

    P.S. I am in a new and quite exciting relationship with an Interactive whiteboard at the moment ... sometimes it is really eager and responsive and other times makes me hang round and wait for it to do something ... anything !

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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    Simple-ish fix:

    * Go to Start---> Run...

    * Type in the following, exactly as written below:

    RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

    * Press OK.

    This should bring up the Safely Remove Hardware screen as well as restoring the icon to the corner.

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    ooh ... you the man

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    Ceroc DJ
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    btw this generally happens when there is no hardware plugged in that can be safely removed

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    The Dashing Moderator
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    Quote Originally Posted by Robin View Post
    btw this generally happens when there is no hardware plugged in that can be safely removed
    That's not my experience - I've also had cases where I have a USB stick plugged in but no icon to remove it, even though the same stick works normally on other occasions. I also have had times where it refuses to relinquish the hardware, even when I've closed all applications.
    Love dance, will travel

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    Ceroc DJ
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    Re: Someone has stolen my "Safely Remove Hardware" icon.

    ermmm... I was trying to be funny. It was more of a quip that XP doesn't think it can safely remove anything so its hidden the icon

    oh well.

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