Removable Device Not Removable

[Chris]

I have raised this problem before but seems no one can help me. Now I have
some new findings.

When I plugged in USB harddisk, flash drive or card reader, the "Safely
Remove Hardware" list never show them.

I tried to modify the Capabilities value in registry, then the device
appears on the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog but when I choose to stop it,
there is an error that it is not a removable device and it cannot be ejected.

Anyone knows why all removable USB devices are recognized as non-removable?

Thank you very much for your help.

Now I found a possible reason for the problem but still have no idea on how
to solve it.
Recently, anymore. It only shows the plugged
infra-red device.

Anyone who can help me to solve this problem? I would like these devices
showed on the list again or otherwise I don't know how to safely remove them.

Thank you very much for your kind help!

 

[Ed Covney]

Anyone knows why all removable USB devices are recognized as

non-removable?
Thank you very much for your help.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

See items #338, and 388

Ed

 

[Ed Covney]

I would also say that in the last 4 years I have never clicked on the

'safely remove device' option before removing any USB device and have never
(touch wood) had a problem. Probably get told now just what bad advice that
is but I am not giving any advice, just giving an observation.

Actually, if they're FAT devices - never worry. And
even if they're NTFS, write cache is flushed pdq -
on the other hand, proper removal insures the flush.

Ed

 

[M.I.5¾]

I have raised this problem before but seems no one can help me. Now I have
some new findings.

When I plugged in USB harddisk, flash drive or card reader, the "Safely
Remove Hardware" list never show them.

This is the correct default behaviour. Removeable devices of the type you
describe are set up automatically as 'Optimise for fast removal'. Thus data
written to those devices in not cached and thus they do not require to be
stopped using 'Safely Remove Hardware'. You can change this behaviour
through the Manage option when you right click 'My Computer'.

I tried to modify the Capabilities value in registry, then the device
appears on the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog but when I choose to stop
it,
there is an error that it is not a removable device and it cannot be
ejected.

You seem to have set up the registry to treat them as non removeable.
Registry hacking is not for the faint hearted and can be dangerous.

Anyone knows why all removable USB devices are recognized as
non-removable?

Because you have hacked the registry to introduce this behaviour. They are
not non-removeable by default. The default behaviour is that you just
unplug them once the activity light has stopped flashing.

Thank you very much for your help.

Now I found a possible reason for the problem but still have no idea on
how
to solve it.

Restore the registry to its previous state by performing a system restore to
a time before you meddled with it.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I would also say that in the last 4 years I have never clicked on the
'safely remove device' option before removing any USB device and have never
(touch wood) had a problem. Probably get told now just what bad advice that
is but I am not giving any advice, just giving an observation.

You only need to 'Safely Remove' if you set the cacheing up for 'Optimise
for Speed' from the 'Manage' menu when you right click 'My Computer'.
Having said that, I am aware that some OEM Windows do come set up that way.

 

[Chris]

Thankyou for your suggestion. However, after I added the file (#338) to
registry and restarted the computer, the result is the same.

It is very strange very few people encountered such problem!

Best regards,
Chris Lee.

 

[Chris]

But I am 100% sure that even the policy is set to 'Optimise for fast
removal', it is also included in 'Safely Remove Device' list. It is
confirmed by testing with other computers.

On the other hand, even if I set 'Optimize for performance', the device is
still not in the list.

Besides, I only modified one value in registry to push it to show in Remove
Device dialog. And when I tried to eject the device from the list, it shows
that the device is non-removable. So this test shows that my XP incorrectly
interpret all USB storage devices as non-removable, not the cause that I
modified the registry to make them non-removable.

Best regards,
Chris Lee.

 

[M.I.5¾]

But I am 100% sure that even the policy is set to 'Optimise for fast
removal', it is also included in 'Safely Remove Device' list. It is
confirmed by testing with other computers.

On the other hand, even if I set 'Optimize for performance', the device is
still not in the list.

Well it should be, but is this possibly your registry hacking?

Besides, I only modified one value in registry to push it to show in
Remove
Device dialog. And when I tried to eject the device from the list, it
shows
that the device is non-removable. So this test shows that my XP
incorrectly
interpret all USB storage devices as non-removable, not the cause that I
modified the registry to make them non-removable.

I am aware that it is possible to configure XP for all sorts of erroneous
bahaviours. I am still trying to sort out one PC that was supplied that
way. 'Optimise for Performance' works properly, by 'Optimise for removal'
leaves the device in the 'Safely Remove ...' without actually disabling the
write back cacheing. Attempting to stop the device generates an error
suggesting that it can be removed. When you unplug it, you get a 'Delay
Write Failure' when it tries to write the cache back.