The Safely Remove Hardware icon does not disappear. Safely removing a flash drive, why is it necessary?

Some users find that the secure feature USB eject-device is a kind of anachronism, and there is no special need for it. On the one hand, this is true - modern operating systems allow you to remove the drive without the threat of damaging the flash memory, unless, of course, the data on it is used by other applications.

On the other hand, caution is never too much, and in this regard, the safe removal feature is well worth the effort. The only problem is that many people consider it inconvenient to find each time desired icon in the notification panel.

Actually, there is nothing inconvenient about this, but if you are in a hurry or have poor eyesight, perhaps the two methods described below will be useful for you.

In the first case, we will use undocumented capabilities of Windows itself. So, create a desktop empty label, and in the window that opens, enter the following line:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

Click “Next” and enter the desired name in the shortcut name field, for example “Remove USB device”. Then click on the shortcut right key mouse, select Properties → Shortcut and in the “ Quick call” specify a hotkey combination to open the dialog box.

It should be noted that this method, which works fine in XP and Vista, may fail in more later versions. In this case, instead of a message indicating that the removable device was successfully disconnected, you will receive the error “Device |name| is not removable and cannot be removed.”

Thanks to hidden Windows capabilities you can do other tricks, for example, quickly “connect and disconnect” virtual disks. The situation is somewhat more complicated with virtual drives, created using emulator programs, for example UltraISO - you can download this useful application, and at the same time get acquainted with its capabilities.

Another way to quickly remove portable device is to use, of which USB Disk Eject is the simplest and most convenient. USB Disk Eject is completely free, lightweight, does not require installation, and works correctly on Windows 7 and 8.

Using the utility is extremely simple. The program displays a list of devices connected to the PC; double click on the selected device instantly disables it. Supports work with flash drives, SD cards and other types of portable media. The only drawback of this utility is the lack of Russian language.

When using the safe removal of the flash drive function, I always received a window with a message indicating that it was safe to remove the flash drive. Recently, when you click on the flash drive icon in order to safely remove it, no message is received, and the flash drive icon disappears in the window. Therefore, I don’t know whether it is possible to safely remove the flash drive or not. Tell me what settings need to be made to restore the function of safely removing a flash drive. I prefer to make the appropriate settings in the registry or using the gpedit editor. Thank you in advance..

/ Vitaly Vladimirovich 08.28.2016, 11:05

Some strange behavior of the icon: it is still visible, but does not function. I would like to know if this behavior is only with this flash drive or with all? Try checking it for viruses. There are solutions on the Internet when the tray icon is completely missing. Can I recommend a program to you? USB Safely Remove. It has similar functionality and even more.

There is also an excellent utility that clears all traces of connected USB devices in the registry and after it everything starts working as it should. This is a utility USBOblivion. designed to erase traces of connecting USB drives and CD-ROMs from the registry in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Wimdows 10, both 32 and 64-bit versions. The utility has test mode work, i.e. without actually deleting data from the registry, and, just in case, creates a .reg file to undo all changes. There is also a complete auto mode work.

Hello, today I will talk about what to do if you have lost the Safely Remove Hardware icon on Windows example 7. First, check to see if the safe eject icon is not on the taskbar itself. To do this, click on the tray tab and if the safe eject icon is there, simply drag it with the left mouse button onto the taskbar itself.

Go to the “Processes” tab, find explorer.exe there, click on it right click mouse and select “End” or “End process” (in different versions Windows differently).

This method is suitable when, for example, you installed a program to recover flash media, but after removing this program, the safe removal icon may sometimes disappear.

Missing shortcuts on your desktop? Everything is correct, no need to worry, this is how it should be! Please note that the task manager remains open (otherwise, just launch it again using one of the keyboard button combinations described above). Go to the “File” menu - “ New task(Execute)...". Enter explorer.exe in the input line that appears, press Enter and rejoice! Everything is back to its place, including the safe removal icon that you didn’t have until recently.

Restoring the Safe Removal Icon

Now let’s talk about what changes are made to the registry when the Safely Remove Hardware and Disks icon in Windows 7 disappears. Go to “Start” - “Run”, enter regedit and press Enter. Then open the following branches sequentially: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\SysTray. On the right we find the names that I will list below and indicate their parameters accordingly:

"Services”=dword:0000001b

“HotPlugFlags”=dword:00000002

After changes made restart your computer. Be extremely careful when entering any data into the registry because if you change something wrong there, you can easily disable the system. Follow everything strictly according to the instructions described above.

For those who were unable to edit the registry, you can download the . After downloading, open the BezIzv.reg file, which is located in the archive at the link above. You will be asked if you really want to make changes to the registry; click “Yes” in all messages.

Manual method

There is also a way where you can open a window in which you have the option to turn off the device. To do this, go to “Start” - “Run”, insert the line: rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll. After entering, press Enter.

At the bottom, check the “Display device components” checkbox so you can understand what kind of device it is. Thus, you will have the line: “Universal volume - Letter.”

To turn off devices, click the Stop button. Next, select the flash drive and click OK.

Software

All the instructions described above sometimes do not help to return the missing safe removal icon, but you should not be upset, because there are programs that will help with this problem.

If all the described methods did not help you, as on one of the computers where I solved this problem, then you can safely install USB program Safely Remove. It’s worth saying right away that this program paid, I think the question of where to download this program will not arise, fortunately the Internet exists.

After installing it, you will have an icon in the tray that is a little similar to the one that is by default in Windows for ejecting flash media.

The program is not complicated and you will not have any difficulties with it. This is a 100 percent method, which I wanted to talk about at the very end of the article, since this is a “paid” solution. In this article, I told you what to do if the Safely Remove Hardware icon disappears, but you can also use logic circuit solutions to other problems.

That's all for today. See you soon!

A flash drive is an indispensable attribute for most daily tasks. And losing information on it is a rather serious problem. That is why such a moment as safe removal usb devices is an important way to preserve important information and the carrier itself.

What happens if you take out a flash drive without using safe eject?

Seemingly harmless, disconnecting a flash drive from a USB connector can create several problems...

Firstly, if the drive is used in this way, the information on it may simply disappear (either partially or completely). The likelihood of losing files is especially high at the moment of sudden “pulling out” from USB port at the time of file transfer. The fact is that the computer creates a temporary area on it to store copied files, and if the process is interrupted, the information will simply disappear.

In addition, pulling out a flash drive risks that the media may simply burn out. This can happen because as a result of such “pulling” of the carrier between the contacts, short circuit and the mechanical parts of the carrier simply burn out.

This is why safe removal is mandatory for the safety of the media.

How to remove a flash drive correctly?

Safe removal Flash storage occurs in several stages.

Initially, you should close all programs that use the resources of the drive (for example, a player playing a movie recorded on USB or Microsoft Office when viewing and editing a document).

You might be interested to know why sometimes files are not transferred to a flash drive from my last article :)

Method 1

On the taskbar, click the “Safely Remove Hardware and Disks” icon. This icon is active only if at least one USB device is connected to the computer.

It can be hidden, to do this, click on the “Show” arrow hidden icons" Then click the “Extract” button. If you have multiple devices connected to your computer at the same time, you must first choose which device to remove. After this, a window will appear with information that the drive can be removed.

Method 2

Open the “My Computer” shortcut. This can be done from the desktop or through the Start menu. Find required device in the list, right-click on it and select “Extract” from the drop-down list.

After this, the device can be safely removed from the connector.

Conclusion

These methods are suitable not only for flash drives, but also for all other USB devices, because as mentioned above, ordinary pulling out can lead to the fact that the device will simply burn out.

Someone will say that they have been using flash drives for many years, do not use safe ejection and that’s okay, but no one is immune from troubles and the above method will help reduce risks to a minimum.

Safely removing a device is typically used to remove USB flash drives or external hard drive in Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 8. It may happen that the safe eject icon has disappeared from the panel Windows tasks- this may cause misunderstanding and lead to confusion, but there is nothing wrong with that. Now we will return this icon to its place. Note: in Windows 8, for devices that are defined as a Media device, the safe eject icon is not shown (players, Android tablets, some phones).

Typically, in order to safely remove a device in Windows, you right-click on the corresponding icon near the clock and do it. The purpose of Safe Removal is that when you use it, you are telling operating system about what you intend to extract this device(for example, a flash drive). In response to this, Windows terminates all operations that could lead to data corruption. In some cases, it also stops supplying power to the device.

Failure to safely remove hardware may result in data loss or damage to the drive. In practice, this does not happen often and there are certain things that you need to know and take into account to prevent this from happening, but I will write about this sometime.

How to get the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon back

Sometimes, according to unknown reasons, the safe removal icon may disappear. Even if you connect and disconnect the flash drive over and over again, for some reason the icon does not appear. If this happens to you (and this is most likely the case, otherwise you would not have come here), press the Win + R buttons on your keyboard and enter next command in the Run window:

RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

This command works on Windows 7, 8 and XP. The absence of a space after the comma is not an error, it should be so. After running this command, the Safely Remove Hardware dialog box that you were looking for will open.

In this window, you can, as usual, select the device that you want to disable and click the “Stop” button. A side effect of running this command is that the safe eject icon will reappear where it should be.

If it keeps disappearing and you have to do it again every time the specified command to remove the device, you can create a shortcut for this action: right-click on empty space desktop, select “Create” - “Shortcut” and in the “Object location” field, enter a command to open the Safely Remove Device dialog. At the second stage of creating a shortcut, you can give it any desired name.

Another way to safely remove your device in Windows

There is another simple method that allows you to safely remove your device when the Windows taskbar icon is missing:

Hopefully the methods listed here to safely remove your portable HDD or a flash drive will be enough for you.