Vista Tutorial - Seafely Remove Hardware Question

Open taskbar and start menu properties.
Click on Taskbar tab. Make sure that "hide inactive icons" is checked.
Click on 'Customize..."
Click on "safely remove hardware" and select "Hide when inactive".

You probably do not want to completely prevent this icon from appearing.
It's there for a purpose.
Same about "optimize for quick removal" - don't change it, if not sure.

Regards,
-- pa


"JamesJ" <jjy@xxxxxx_roadrunner.com> wrote in message
news:eom7Jw58JHA.3836@xxxxxx

That was the first thing I did but, it shows an arrow indicating something
is hidden
and that is just as annoying.

I know why it's there. In case I try to unplug my external hard drive while
my system
is accessing the drive. I use the drive for backup only. The system has no
reason to
access this drive unless I initiate it. Heck, I've unplugged it and plugged
it back in several
times and I see no problems with the data.

James

"Pavel A." <pavel_a@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23b1FPBG9JHA.2604@xxxxxx

Hi, James.

I just today responded to your other thread with the same question. I gave
you the same advice as you've quoted:
Did you actually try this? What was the result?

Googling (and Binging) for "quick removal" and such terms got me thousands
of hits from other discussions like this, but nothing authoritative until I
tried TechNet. There I found this
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb457107.aspx ), but I'm not
sure if you can access it without a TechNet subscription, so I've pasted
several paragraphs. It is from the Windows XP Professional Resource Kit,
published November 30, 2005. While it is much more than you asked for, it
might help explain WHY, not just "how to".

<paste>
Safe Removal of Plug and Play Devices
Some buses allow devices to be hot-plugged-added or removed while a system
is running. Examples of such buses include USB, IEEE 1394, PC Card, and
CardBus. For devices on other buses, such as ISA and PCI, the computer must
be turned off before devices are added or removed.

Note While primarily intended for servers, Windows XP also supports the
Hot-Plug PCI specification through ACPI. This specification allows users to
install and remove PCI devices while the computer is running for compliant
PCI devices and controllers. For more information, see
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...otplugpci.mspx.

When removing a device from a bus that supports hot plugging, if the Safely
Remove Hardware icon appears in the notification area, use the Safely Remove
Hardware application as explained later to ensure a safe removal of hardware
from the system. The Safely Remove Hardware application informs Windows that
the user intends to remove a device. This gives Windows an opportunity to
prepare for the removal by taking steps such as halting data transfers to
the device and unloading device drivers.

When hardware is removed from a running system without using the Safely
Remove Hardware application, it is often referred to as surprise removal
because the operating system is not notified in advance of the removal.
Surprise removal is particularly a concern for storage devices for which
write caching is enabled, because when such devices are surprise removed,
data loss or corruption might occur. To reduce the likelihood of data loss
or corruption as a result of surprise removal of consumer-oriented storage
devices, Windows XP Professional disables write caching by default for these
devices (such as cameras that include IEEE 1394 or USB storage, small form
factor storage devices such as compact flash, and so on). While write
caching policy addresses this particular issue, it is recommended that users
continue to use the Safely Remove Hardware application when it appears in
the notification area. Also, disabling write caching might slow the
performance of consumer-oriented storage devices.

Write caching is enabled by default for high-performance external storage
devices such as IEEE 1394 hard drives and SCSI hard drives, in addition to
being enabled for storage devices inside the computer that cannot be
surprise removed.

Caching policy defaults can be changed in Device Manager for
high-performance external storage devices. In Device Manager, on the
property sheet for the removable storage device, click the Policies tab to
view the default write caching settings for the device. If the Policies tab
does not display, this option is not provided for the device. If the write
caching settings are enabled, you can change the settings based on your
performance and safe removal needs as follows:

Click Optimize for quick removal to disable write caching on the storage
device and in Windows. This allows you to remove the device without using
the Safely Remove Hardware application, but it can have an impact on the
performance of the device.

Click Optimize for performance to enable write caching in Windows, which can
improve the performance of the storage device. However, you must use the
Safely Remove Hardware application to disconnect the device from the
computer.

If these write caching options are not available, your storage device is not
removable without turning off the computer and a different option displays
in the dialog box. This option allows you to disable write caching for your
storage device, which can affect the performance of the device.
</paste>

In summary, you can Optimize for Quick Removal; this will get rid of your
Safely Remove Hardware icon - which is what you said you want - but it might
slow down copying files to your HDD. (Reads don't use the cache, so they
shouldn't be affected.) OR, you can Optimize for Best Performance - and
continue to deal with that icon.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"JamesJ" <jjy@xxxxxx_roadrunner.com> wrote in message
news:eom7Jw58JHA.3836@xxxxxx

I have Optimize for Quick Removal checked but the icon remains.
Am I missing something?

James

"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:utWrXxZ%23JHA.4560@xxxxxx

Hi, James.

As they say, when all else fails, Google is your friend. And now, with
Bing, we have two such friends. ;<)

I asked Bing to search for "safely remove hardware icon" and this was about
the 7th of 494,000 hits:

Icon Remover
A freeware tool for geting rid of 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon.
http://iconremover.com/index.html

I've never tried this so I don't know if it works. Why don't you check it
out and let us all know how well it works.

Google also gets nearly a half-million hits on that search string. Most
hits - in both search engines - seem to be about safely removing the
hardware, rather than about removing the icon, but several hits look
promising.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"JamesJ" <jjy@xxxxxx_roadrunner.com> wrote in message
news:O1U58qb#JHA.4560@xxxxxx