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AlanE · Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject: USB icon in system tray

One for you Nick.

Normally in system tray is icon which is clicked on prior to removing USB accessories. Mine has decided to go missing so now I just have to unplug device and hope for best which can be a bit risky when removing pen drives as there is no way to ensure file saves have been compleated.

How do I get it back please?? Running XP.

NickAskew · Moderator Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Thirsk

Hi Alan,

This isn't something I've come across before, but luckily other people seem to have been plagued by it so a plausible solution appears to be listed here:

http://ask-leo.com/safely_remove_hardware_where_did_the_icon_go_how_do_i_safely_remove_hardware_without_it.html

On this article:
I would imagine the loss of the icon would be due to the corruption or removal of boot time time settings either in a configuration file or perhaps the registry, midway through this article the author mentions that having run the remove hardware utility manually, the icon seems to reappear from that point forward so I assume it rewrites the necessary settings for you. In some cases the icon does not automatically reappear on reboot and I would perhaps look towards disabling any anti-virus/spam software whilst performing this 'fix' because software such as this is likely to trigger the 'a program is being naughty' security which usually disables configuration file/registry updates.

Another method I prefer to use to remove USB sticks that I have been writing data on to is to use windows explorer. If you open windows explorer and click on 'my computer' so that the disk drives are listed on the right hand side of explorer, you can right-click on any USB drives (and some external hard disks too) and choose 'Eject' from the menu, I find this a much more robust way or detaching a USB stick because I receive far fewer 'the device is still in use' messages Smile

Good Luck!

Nick

AlanE · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject:

Hi Nick

An update on the missing 'Safely remove' icon.

Tried you suggested link and then went on to research several other forums and it would seem that this is a VERY common experience but while there are several workarounds, such as a desktop link to the required script, nowhere could I find out what actually causes the problem to start with nor a sure fire cure.

I therefore resigned myself to a few hours work to reinstall windows. But before I could get around to actually doing it the wanderer returned!! The icon is back just came back all on its own. For how long though is anybodys guess I suppose.

Suppose thats Microsoft for you?