"Safely Remove Hardware" won't go away

[whr2206]

Hey all...

After installing a 300gb WD SATA hd, the safely remove hardware icon will not disapear. Is a SATA drive hot swappable or something? The only time I ever see this icon otherwise is when I'm using a usb device. So how can I get this to go away? If I click on it, then it will proceed to remove my SATA drive.

Also, I've successfully installed the new drive, installed a few games on it, but how can I get it organized like the main hd that has windows installed on it? Like for example, sticking the games under a Program Files folder or something. All of the games I've installed are just jumbled under the directory d:\

Here are my specs:
Asus (cant remember model) SLI mobo with and Nvidia Chipset
AMD 3200+ Venice Core
2GB Geil DDR 400 Dual Channel ram
BFG 7800 GT pci-e
80 gb Western Digital 7200rpm ide 8mb cache (old drive)
250 gb Western Digital SATA 16mb cache (new drive)
Pioneer 16x DVD Burner
Lite On 32x CD Burner
Onboard Sound Disabled, I use my Plantronics Headset
Floppy
Logitech mx510 mouse
Windows XP Home sp2
550watt xclio psu

thanks a lot!

[Stuey]

Originally Posted by whr2206 Also, I've successfully installed the new drive, installed a few games on it, but how can I get it organized like the main hd that has windows installed on it? Like for example, sticking the games under a Program Files folder or something. All of the games I've installed are just jumbled under the directory d:\

Unfortunately I can't help with the first question of your post. But in regard to installing the games... I believe that you would have to uninstall and then reinstall the games, as I believe moving the installed directories will somehow break the installations.

You'd have to create the file structure yourself and then navigate to it each time you install a new program or game.

[GaryRouth]

The only times I've heard of internal SATA drives causing the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon to appear in the System Tray is when they are in "Racks" or "Mobile Bays" and the like. . . It's normal for an external drive to be hot-swappable, whether SATA or USB.

Your system seems pretty recent . . . did you by any chance recently install either a printer (or multifunction device) that has slots for photo memory cards - or a memory-card reader? These will cause that icon to appear, just as you already noted.

. . . and Stuey83 is right about organizing a "data drive" -- it's all up to you. But you need to plan the organization before you install the games - because their setup files & their Registry settings will point to where they are now. Uninstalling the games, then setting up your folders, then reinstalling the games will fix that.

. . . Gary

[macko72]

If you have an USB device attached to your system, you will notice an icon in the Notification area, which - when clicked - will give you the option to Stop your hardware, before you unplug it.

It is possible that you never unplug this hardware. So how do you get rid of the icon? As far as I know the only way is to right-click the notification area, and selecting Properties. Under the Notification area heading, click Customize. Find the Safely Remove Hardware icon and select Always hide in the Behavior column next to it (press OK and Apply to back out).
EDIT:
I found this on google:


SATA drives show up in “Safely Remove Hardware” icon when the nForce SATA drivers are installed under XP

Imagine my surprise to find both C and D drives (both SATA drives) on a machine listed under the "Safely Remove Hardware" in Windows XP! I didn't like the idea of them being available for disconnection because it's so easy to click on the wrong thing.

With the use of Google though, I traced the problem back to the nForce SATA drivers that I'd installed on the system. Fortunately, there's a simple registry hack that fixes the problem easily:

Click Start > Run and type:
regedit
Press ENTER
Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nvata
Right-click in the right hand pane and choose New > DWORD
Create a new DWORD value:
DisableRemovable
Right-click on this new value and choose Modify and change the value to 1
Close Regedit
Restart Windows
Technorati Tags: nForce, SATA

http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=3079

[whr2206]

Wow, thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

I tried googling it first, but I failed to find the answer.

I had a feeling I would have to reinstall the games in order to relocate them in another directory. But that's ok. At least I'll know that bit of info the next time I add a new had drive

thanks a lot guys!

[glc]

SATA by design is hotswappable if you use the SATA power connector instead of the 4 pin Molex - but of course you do not want to do this to your system drive! It wouldn't let you anyway - if you tried to stop the device, it would tell you that it couldn't as files are in use.