Vista - Thumb drive has no remove icon in System tray

I use Vista Ultimate. Whenever I connect a Thumb drive, there is no removal
icon in the System Tray. If I connect my large external HDD there is. How
do I remove my thumb drive safely?
--
Doug

Hi Doug,

Lean over close to the front of the machine and whisper very gently that you
are now going to remove its thumb. Then, firmly grasp the drive and remove
it from the slot in one sweeping motion. The machine may protest, but in all
fairness you did warn it......

Ok, seriously now, simply open Windows Explorer and right click the drive.
You will find an option in the context menu for "Safely Remove". This will
accomplish the same thing, which is basically to ensure that the system
stops writing to the drive.

Not sure why it isn't showing in the system tray, but you might try checking
that a) the system tray icons are fully expanded and b) that it has not
become an 'aged' icon in the taskbar and start menu properties.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Doug" <Doug@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:08F188EB-DB01-4340-9700-6803724236FD@microsoft.com...
>I use Vista Ultimate. Whenever I connect a Thumb drive, there is no
>removal
> icon in the System Tray. If I connect my large external HDD there is.
> How
> do I remove my thumb drive safely?
> --
> Doug

This is just a workaround, but not a solution. I have the same problem, but it only occurs when I am using my D-Link USB hub. If i plug my thumb drive directly into computer, it appears under hardware that can be safely removed. If I plug it into the USB hub, the only way to safely unplug it is to use eject from my computer. There is a problem though, using the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the system tray will tell you if any program is still using the drive, using eject, simply unmounts the drive without any warnings.