Undo Safely Remove Hardware

[Guest]

I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E
drive.

I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E drive.

I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following meg;

Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for
"safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47)

To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug it
in again.

I have not rebooted or anything yet.

How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...?

Thank you very much

 

[Paul Randall]

Comment inline

I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E
drive.

I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E
drive.

Yes, I do this all the time when I want to remove a USB device, a hard drive
for instance. Perhaps to take it to another computer and make a copy of
what is on the hard drive.

I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following
meg;

Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for
"safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47)

That message explains it. It has been prepared to be unplugged. Nothing
has been erased. It is safe to unplug.

To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug
it
in again.

This message tells you that if you changed your mind -- you don't want to
use the device somewhere else -- and you want to use the device on this
computer, you must first unplug it, and then plug it back in. When you plug
it back in, the computer will recognise it, install drivers if necessary,
and will pop up a window of some kind indicating it is installed and ready.

I have not rebooted or anything yet.

How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...?

Unplug it, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in.

Thank you very much

Hope this helps,
-Paul Randall

 

[Tom Porterfield]

I have a ton of stuff on my external hard drive, which happens to be my E
drive.

I somehow managed to click safely remove hardware, thus removing my E drive.

I went to Hardware Manager to try and recover it and got the following meg;

Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for
"safe removal", but it has not been removed from the computer. (Code 47)

To fix this problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug it
in again.

I have not rebooted or anything yet.

How do I restore this drive w/o losing its contents...?

Your data is safe so nothing to worry about there. Easiest thing to do
is simply disconnect the drive and then reconnect it. If that isn't
easy, then rebooting the PC will also work fine.