I don’t know why Windows has to be so annoying about things like this, but every now and then the “safely remove hardware” icon disappears from my system tray. Since I’m often switching around hard drives that I use with my IDE-to-USB adapter, I use that often. It took me a little while to find out how to get to the remove hardware screen when it’s missing so I could unplug the drive without corrupting everything, so here’s where it is (at least under Windows XP) in case anyone else has this problem:
- Right-click on My Computer
- Select “Properties”
- Click on the “Hardware” tab at the top
- Click on Device Manager
- In my case, since it’s a hard drive, I click on “Disk drives.” For other devices, you might have to hunt around.
- Right-click on the removable drive
- Select “Properties”
- Click on “Policies”
- Under the “Optimize for performance” option, there should be a link called “Safely Remove Hardware.” If you click that, you’ll bring up the good old hardware removal screen that Windows was trying so hard to hide from us.
Hope that helps someone.
thank you so much for putting this online! unfortunately, it didn’t fix my external hard drive’s problem. still no icon… or stop or eject options!
Yeah, this doesn’t bring the icon back when it disappears, but (for me at least) it was a way to stop using the drive so I could unplug it when the icon was missing. It seems that usually the icon comes back after I plug a different drive in after taking the first one out. I still have no idea why it goes away to begin with…
An easier way is to simply right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and select Eject. You might think this only applies to CDs/DVDs that actually spit out the disk, but it works on any removable disk, even if you manually have to yank out the cable. The eject command flushes all disk buffers and allows the device to be removed safely. It’s a lot fewer clicks than the method above.
Ed,
Right now my “stop device” icon is missing again, and I don’t have an Eject option when I right click on the drive. I have Eject for my DVD drive, but nothing for the external hard drive. I don’t know if that disappeared at the same time as the safely remove hardware icon, or if it was never there for that drive for some reason.
If you want an Icon that will bring up the Safetly remove Hardware window, just right click on the desktop and choose new Shortcut, then in the location field type “%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll”, and save, then just click.
Hi Patrick, I tried typing ““%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll” into the location field type, but it says that the file could not be found! What should I do now?
Kristene,
Make sure you don’t include the quotes at the beginning and end. That shortcut worked for me, big thanks to Patrick.
Patrick,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Patrick,
thank you very much.. you r the best
thank you. i’d almost given up searching for a solution.
Thank you Patrick, your tip helped me too!
Patrick, you F#@king rock dude, my forhead is starting to get round again since I don’t have to beat it on my desk.
Thanks!!
Thank you so much do u no how many people you have helped?!
Hi Patrick… I have just about been pulling my hair out, it’s a shame that Microsoft don’t have this type of info built into XP HELP, I couldn’t find into on how to resolve problem at all… your tip worked perfect THANK YOU from way down under (NZ)
PATRICK YOU ARE THE MAN !!!!!!!!!
Hi! This website explains a wayyyy easier way. You can create a shortcut on the desktop (like someone on this site already said), only it tells you to type something different into the “create shortcut” thing and it’s guarenteed to work: http://ask-leo.com/safely_remove_hardware_where_did_the_icon_go_how_do_i_safely_remove_hardware_without_it.html
Oh yeah! And if you really wanna “spice” the shortcut on your desktop up, then right click on it, go to “Properties”, make sure the tab is in “Shortcut”, click on “Change Icon”, type in “hotplug.dll” (without the quotations), press enter, and voila, choose the familiar icon you’re SUPPOSED to see on your task bar in the first place!
Hey, and to think I wanted to format again…. Thanks for the ICON tip, it did the trick!
its an unnecessary tool. u can remove ur harware manually. be certain about not using it
I disagree with the comment that this is an unnecessary tool. If you have implemented “Optimize for performance” on a USB-connected hard drive (check this in the Device Manager), then removing it without the “Safely Remove Hardware” will leave your final data still sitting in the buffers. If you want to be able to remove the drive without risk then you must select “Optimize for quick removal”. The shortcut method noted above works slick!!!
http://ask-leo.com/safely_remove_hardware_where_did_the_icon_go_how_do_i_safely_remove_hardware_without_it.html
Thank you so much for publishing this. I have been trying to find a fix to get the safely remove icon back for over one month. It did the trick. It was in the past items list. Every time I pull in a windows update, something goes nuts. I hear they’re trying to publish updates that support Vista and XP and is causing weird things to happen. Thanks again!
For windows Vista, there was a “Safely Remove” right-click context menu item for a removable hard drive on my HP media center PC. This has disappeared, and it was much easier to use, like the “Eject” command, than using the tray icon. You didn’t have to sort thru a bunch of cryptic devices to remove the one you needed.
How do we get this context menu item back?
Patrick this shortcut is sweet thanks heaps mate. Wondering if anyone knows how to safely remove the device when it says it can’t be stopped right now, try later. Usually I just pull it out.
I usually just pull the device out anyway also, although I generally try to figure out what’s keeping it open. Sysinternal’s Process Explorer lets you search to see what process has any handles open on the USB drive, although in almost every case it doesn’t find any. Sometimes I’ll kill off Explorer and re-start it, which will once in a while release the drive and let me unmount it. I guess that’s a sign of a bug in Windows somewhere that’s keeping the drive busy?
Sysinternals has another tool to let you see file access, so you can see if there really is any activity on the drive. Since I never see any in these cases, that makes me feel better about just yanking it out when Windows says I shouldn’t.
Thanks a bundle.
My contribution would be to make sure all explorer windows are closed when hit with the “device is being accessed” “try later” situation.
The person who finds the answer to the following will become the grand national champion of all computer gurus, because this has never been addressed in all of my searches:
SecureType May 19, 2007 | 1:36 pm
For windows Vista, there was a “Safely Remove” right-click context menu item for a removable hard drive on my HP media center PC. This has disappeared, and it was much easier to use, like the “Eject” command, than using the tray icon. You didn’t have to sort thru a bunch of cryptic devices to remove the one you needed.
How do we get this context menu item back?
Posted by: SecureType at October 2, 2007 08:33 AM
Thanx a lot,
although, as Herschel says, this doesn;t bring up your missing icon when it’s gone, going to the steps and doing one more thing will. Read through your steps below, slightly revised:
1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Select “Properties”
3. Click on the “Hardware” tab at the top
4. Click on Device Manager
5. In my case, since it’s a hard drive, I click on “Disk drives.” For other devices, you might have to hunt around.
6. Right-click on the removable drive
7. Select “Properties”
8. Click on “Policies”
9. Under the “Optimize for performance” option, there should be a link called “Safely Remove Hardware.” If you click that, you’ll bring up the good old hardware removal screen that Windows was trying so hard to hide from us.
9a. Forget that. what I have (XPSP2, DELL Latitude D820) is under Policies “Optimize for performance”, and this has a beautiful link called “Safely Remove Hardware” in the text explaining rhe “Optimize for performance” choice. Click that and, MIRACLE, the icon comes back.
To get to device manager quicker:
1. Right-click on My Computer
2. Click on Device Manager
Your now at device manager.
Thanks a lot Patrick.. youve saved me a lot of trouble here… the “Safely Remove” icon has actually reappeared now.. its almost impossible to get any support for these problems..
Just as easy, right-click on the device in My Computer and click on Eject. But the consensus is, after examining this issue at so many sites, is that this icon is useless. Just make sure any light on your USB device is not blinking – then simply unplug!
Wow thank you everyone who contributed to the solution.. I’ve been frustrated many times because the of the disappearing “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in the taskbar. I usually just resorted to pulling it out after shutting down the computer.. but now I have the solution. Thank you so much. I can now help out others who’re having the same problem
Thank you again 
Try this HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify delete the two keys in there in vista. then reboot. sorted.
The person who finds the answer to the following will become the grand national champion of all computer gurus, because this has never been addressed in all of my searches:
SecureType May 19, 2007 | 1:36 pm
For windows Vista, there was a “Safely Remove” right-click context menu item for a removable hard drive on my HP media center PC. This has disappeared, and it was much easier to use, like the “Eject” command, than using the tray icon. You didn’t have to sort thru a bunch of cryptic devices to remove the one you needed.
How do we get this context menu item back?
I got the problem too,I can’t figure it out untill now,if you can read in chinese ,you can go to this forum
http://bbs.pcbeta.com/thread-327942-1-1.html
no valuable answer
http://safelyremove.com/ – If the device cannot be stopped, it will show you what is keeping it from stopping and try to stop the processes (at your request). Works for me.
Patrick, many. many thanks!!!! [it was driving me nuts. Regardless of what I selected or applied using the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog, didn't do the trick.] cheers mate!
Thanks Patrick, the hotplug DLL worked great!
run: rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
This should commence S.R.H.
+you can create a shortcut.ink using :rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll it worked 4 me
+when I safely remove a USB drive the icon returns only until I reboot..
Hooray. hooray – “FIX WOOD”s solution above worked for me.
The registry key has the same name but a different location under XP. Search for it, then get rid of it. Then reboot. THE ICON CAME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Try this HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify delete the two keys in there in vista. then reboot. sorted.
The advice given in the original post did not work for me. The only thing that really fixes this nasty issue is described here:
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-31257-how-to-recover-lost-missing-system-tray-icon
I just successfully performed the magic on my Windows XP SP3 system and my icon is back! FIX WOOO indicated the core part of the solution.
Originally, it goes back to a KB entry from Microsoft (which also applies to XP):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945011
Please update your initial posting, mate.
Patrick’s solution works. All others who used this solution and did not get the desired result might have included the quotation marks in the beginning and at the end. If the quotation marks are not included, this solution works perfectly. All kudos to Patrick!!!
T6RF7WVDQBZEGDMWGE
Welcome to Oakley Sunglasses Hut to buy cool and cheap oakleys sunglasses.
XQSBAKKFJAWM I like it very much!