how do I undo 'safely remove hardware' for CD drive of Windows XP

[PCK]

By mistake, I did click on CD drive under the options displayed when I
clicked on safely remove hardware. One external hard drive was connected to
Windows XP laptop (IBM) at that time. More unfortunate that it was my
husband's laptop just before he headed out for work so it started his day
on sort of a sour note.
Please help me understand on how to reconnect the CD drive in such cases. Do
I need to reboot the laptop or what? Please guide.

 

[BrianB]

Two options that come to mind are ...
1) Unplug the external CD device (or for the laptops internal CD, you should
be able to easily remove it from the case. Then plug it back in. Windows
will recognize the newly attached device and reactivate it.
2) Rebooting works.

Brian

 

[JS]

Remove the CD drive's USB cable from the PC.
Power down the computer.
Power up the computer
Plug in the USB cable
Windows should say "Found New Hardware" a few
seconds after you have inserted the USB connector.