Down in the notifications area, there used to be a little icon with a tiny green arrow, which I would use to eject USB storage drives (memory sticks or external hard disks.)
Gone…
I Googled, and tried what was recommended. The icon doesn’t appear.
One blog said to go to “My Computer > Manage > Services and Applications > Services.” Well, funny: My Computer doesn’t HAVE a “Manage” tab.
The same blog showed how I could run a dll that would do what I want, but that’s weird and shouldn’t be necessary and, anyway, I did and it didn’t work, anyway. So…
How do I get the stupid little icon back?
Also: if I go to the device in question and right-click, shouldn’t I get an option to “Eject?” That’d work too… And it does work for a USB stick…but not for an external hard disk. (Why the heck not?)
Okay, fine… Is there somewhere maybe a downloaded utility or app that will help eject external hard disks? Or do I just wait until I’m pretty sure it isn’t reading or writing, and yank it?
On my machine the “safely remove” program has an icon that looks like a USB cord.
Try going to Control Panel and selecting “Notification Area Icons” I have one there called “Windows Explorer Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media” can you change settings there?
I have only a slight acquaintance with using Windows, but sometimes administrating it for normal Windows users, I noticed that with XP, occasionally that icon disappeared, but it came back on a few reboots.
Anyway, yanking it is generally OK, but not optimal, as it should only affect ongoing writing processes.
Or to be safe you could power down the computer, then disengage the cable, then start up again.
You may be looking in the wrong place. As I find it, “Manage” is not a tab but a menu item. You see it when you right-click “Computer” in the list on the right hand side of the Start Menu. My guess is you could also find it by right clicking the desktop My Computer" icon, if you have that (as I do not). It may need administrator privileges to actually be able to use the Management program.
I strongly suspect Not That Bright has the right idea. I did a “Doh!” myself when I read that since it hadn’t occurred to me either.
As for why an external hard disk might not have the option for “eject”, that’ll happen if you’re using one of those devices that lets you connect a standard ide or sata drive through a usb port. In that situation, the removable part is the connective device itself, not the drives it connects.
Alternatively, your external drive could be detected as (or simply treated as, due to a glitch) a card reader type device, which works as I described above.
FInally, if you’re interested in a utility to better manage your usb devices, check out “USB Safely Remove” at Safely Remove Hardware better alternative | USB Safely Remove. It adds some extra features like hotkeys, the ability to hide devices from it’s menu that you rarely eject (e.g. wireless network card, printer etc.). It won’t make the “safely remove” icon reappear, but it’s very handy, and will at least put it’s own icon in the notification area for you.
Ah! Yes, from Start, Computer, Manage. No from My Computer icon. And…it didn’t work anyway.
Nope…
Yep! It works for a memory stick, but not for a Seagate external disk. No “eject” option.
Coo! That is the great and abiding joy of the “Wintel” environment: somebody has built an utility to address almost any possible named problem! I’ll dive into that, and come back to say how it went. Presuming it will work…Thank You!
When I right-clicked on the USB drive, eject was one of the options.
The maddening thing is that I have no manual and the help facility that is supposed to replace it works only if you think of the correct keyword, while in a manual you can find a table of contents and read a whole section. I have searched the web in vain for a manual for my computer. I can’t even find a place that explains all the keys on the keyboard.
I find, very ,very often, that the best place for support…is right here on the SDMB general questions forum! I’ve had decent luck in other more specialized fora, but, seriously, somebody right here always seems to know something useful. It’s scary. Wonderful!
(Why don’t we take over the world?)
And, yeah! Manuals! Like, is there a decent beginner’s manual for VBA for Excel or Word? Or, hell, is there even a decent manual to explain Word Search and Replace wild cards? Modern programs have so damn many features…and such crummy documentation of them!