My "remove hardware" icon is gone. How can I dismount an external drive?

[Al Dykes]

The "remove hardware" icon on my toolbar decides to hide sometimes,
making it hard to safely dismount my external disk.

How do I get it back or otherwise dismount the disk?

Thanks

 

[PD43]

How do I get it back or otherwise dismount the disk?

If it's not being written to, just unplug it.

 

[Alan Edwards]

I can't tell you how to get it back but try this as an alternative
from the Start-Run box:

RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

....Alan
--
Alan Edwards, MS MVP Windows - Internet Explorer
http://dts-l.com/index.htm




On 24 Mar 2008 22:36:43 -0400, in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,

 

[PaulM]

Have you tried, right click start, proterties,notifcation area, uncheck hide
inactive icons.

 

[Anteaus]

I saw a report elsewhere of a recent update causing exactly this trouble.

 

[Al Dykes]

I can't tell you how to get it back but try this as an alternative
from the Start-Run box:

RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

...Alan

TNX. It dismounted the device and the icon reappeared.

 

[M.I.5¾]

If it's not being written to, just unplug it.

That is the most stupid piece of advice possible.

If the drive requires to be stopped using 'Safely remove hardware' then
write back caching is in use. Such a drive should never be unplugged before
forcing a cache flush (thats what stopping the drive does). If you do then
whatever data is in the cache does not get written. Whole file systems have
been destroyed by not flushing the cache.

For removable drives and unless you really need the extra speed that write
back caching offers, I always suggest configuring the drive for optimize for
quick removal (write-through caching). This side steps the whole problem*.

*though I have become aware that Windows XP has a subtle bug that in some
installations, optimize for quick removal only half works in that you can't
flush the cache (because 'safely remove ...' is not offered), but
nevertheless write back cacheing is in use.

 

[PD43]

That is the most stupid piece of advice possible.

So soddy, ol' chap... but it's worked for me for years.

 

[M.I.5¾]

So soddy, ol' chap... but it's worked for me for years.

So you obviously have write-through cacheing. It doesn't mean every body
else does.