Safely remove hardware question

[Larry(LJL269)]

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
will bring up safely remove dialogue

what I think u r doing is dumping conteets of buffers to HDD. U r
really writing to 1 buffer in RAM while 2nd u just filled is being
written to HDD. doing 2 things at once. U dont hold up CPU due to
writinng to HDD.

Just my 2¢ worth. Larry

I have a fresh installation of XP Home on my computer. For some reason, this
OEM version of XP from Microcenter installed a "safely remove hardware icon"
on my taskbar that I never had before with the regular boxed version of XP
Hypersonic installed on my last system.
My question however isn't about the presence of the icon, although I would
welcome knowing why it's there ) My question is this.
I have a single HDD (no raid) on this system. The icon shows the Western
Digital HDD on C which is normal, but now and then I will insert a USB Flash
drive into the system to back something up. To remove the flash drive, I
naturally want to do it the right way which is to use the "safely remove
hardware" icon.....or is there another way???? Anyway, clicking the flash
drive to remove it on the selection box only has my C drive a fraction of an
inch from being clicked by mistake some day.
This makes me kind of nervous to say the least. Is there a way to remove the
icon from the task bar and remove the flash drive using another method that
isn't quite so close to removing that C drive by mistake??
Many thanks
Dudley

Any advice is my attempt to contribute more than I have received but I can only assure you that it works on my PC. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Dudley Henriques]

I have a fresh installation of XP Home on my computer. For some reason, this
OEM version of XP from Microcenter installed a "safely remove hardware icon"
on my taskbar that I never had before with the regular boxed version of XP
Hypersonic installed on my last system.
My question however isn't about the presence of the icon, although I would
welcome knowing why it's there ) My question is this.
I have a single HDD (no raid) on this system. The icon shows the Western
Digital HDD on C which is normal, but now and then I will insert a USB Flash
drive into the system to back something up. To remove the flash drive, I
naturally want to do it the right way which is to use the "safely remove
hardware" icon.....or is there another way???? Anyway, clicking the flash
drive to remove it on the selection box only has my C drive a fraction of an
inch from being clicked by mistake some day.
This makes me kind of nervous to say the least. Is there a way to remove the
icon from the task bar and remove the flash drive using another method that
isn't quite so close to removing that C drive by mistake??
Many thanks
Dudley

 

[DL]

If your hd is connected to a sata controler then the mobo chipset driver may
feature 'safely remove' since a sata controler is by design hot swap.
Did you install the mobo chipset drivers from manu sites or did you rely on
winupdate?

 

[Raymond J. Johnson Jr.]

I have a fresh installation of XP Home on my computer. For some reason, this
OEM version of XP from Microcenter installed a "safely remove hardware icon"
on my taskbar that I never had before with the regular boxed version of XP
Hypersonic installed on my last system.
My question however isn't about the presence of the icon, although I would
welcome knowing why it's there ) My question is this.
I have a single HDD (no raid) on this system. The icon shows the Western
Digital HDD on C which is normal, but now and then I will insert a USB Flash
drive into the system to back something up. To remove the flash drive, I
naturally want to do it the right way which is to use the "safely remove
hardware" icon.....or is there another way???? Anyway, clicking the flash
drive to remove it on the selection box only has my C drive a fraction of an
inch from being clicked by mistake some day.
This makes me kind of nervous to say the least. Is there a way to remove the
icon from the task bar and remove the flash drive using another method that
isn't quite so close to removing that C drive by mistake??
Many thanks
Dudley

All the "Safely Remove..." thing does is makes sure that there are no
read/write operations in progress when you remove the drive. Most flash
drives have lights on them that illuminate when reading/writing is
happening, and it's generally safe to use that as a guide, rather than
using the tray icon. If you do use the tray icon to stop your flash
drive and accidentally click on the C drive, nothing bad can happen. All
it will do is wait for any read/write operations to be completed and
then tell you that it's safe to remove it.

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Its a brand new system using an EVGA 680i mobo. The HDD is a WD 250 SATA.
The chipset drivers were installed after the OS installation from the mobo
CD. I think I understand from what you said that the icon would be part of
the chipset driver installation on this mobo??
Dudley

 

[Anna]

Its a brand new system using an EVGA 680i mobo. The HDD is a WD 250 SATA.
The chipset drivers were installed after the OS installation from the mobo
CD. I think I understand from what you said that the icon would be part of
the chipset driver installation on this mobo??
Dudley

Dudley:
If I correctly read your query there are two issues involved here...

1. Presumably the WD HDD you refer to is a SATA HDD (not a PATA HDD). Is
that right? Assuming it is, as DL points out in his response to your
query...

Because a SATA HDD has the potential quality of being "hot-pluggable" (some
call it "hot-swappable"), the system will sometimes treat it as a removable
drive in terms of reflecting the Safely Remove Icon in the Notification area
(Systray) similar, for example, to a USB external HDD. I'm not aware of any
practical way to disable that icon. (There are third-party programs that
presumably have that capability but I would not recommend their use). There
is, however, in XP a "Hide inactive icons" feature that you may be
interested in - see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279771

The (practical) bottom-line in all this is that you can just ignore the SRI;
you need not access it in any way with respect to your SATA HDD(s).

2. With respect to the SRI pertaining to your flash drive...

Access Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device
Manager). In the "Disk drives" section of Device Manager, right-click on the
USB device in question and select Properties. On the Properties sheet
that opens, click on the Policies tab. You'll see two options, one of which
is "Optimize for quick removal". Select that option if it's not already
selected (it's usually the default). Click OK.

Note the "Optimize for quick removal" option indicates "... you can
disconnect this device without using the Safe Removal icon". Thus, if you
select that option you need not invoke the SRI command when you disconnect
your flash drive from the system. However, if the information accompanying
the flash drive or other USB device specifically instructs you to use the
Safely Remove icon to stop the device before ejecting or unplugging it
(notwithstanding the "Optimize for quick removal" option), then follow those
instructions.
Anna

 

[Raymond J. Johnson Jr.]

Its a brand new system using an EVGA 680i mobo. The HDD is a WD 250 SATA.
The chipset drivers were installed after the OS installation from the mobo
CD. I think I understand from what you said that the icon would be part of
the chipset driver installation on this mobo??
Dudley

SATA drives are seen as hot-swappable, so the Safely Remove option is
invoked. It means nothing in terms of the hard drive unless you actually
intend to remove it, which you probably wouldn't do with the computer
running. If you click it accidentally, nothing bad can happen (see my
earlier post in this thread).

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thank you very much for your time in explaining this. I deeply appreciate
it. I think I have a handle on it now and understand things much better.
Dudley Henriques

 

[Dudley Henriques]

Thanks Raymond. I think I have a handle on it now.
DH