hardware remove icon for usb devices gone in Taskbar

[ray123]

Hello. I just noticed that my hardware remove icon for usb devices is gone from the taskbar in Windows XP pro. I've always thought it is best to safely remove using this toolbar. But for some reason it is not longer there. How do you bring it back? thanks

[shadowpr]

What usb device are you using?

I would try to just re-plug it in and see if that returns.

If not, a restart might work.

[ray123]

I found the link below. What brought the safely remove icon back for me was pasting:
"RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll" into RUN while I had my flash drive plugged in which manually removes it. After that it stayed. Hopefully for now.

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/5...move-icon.html

Although, some seem to believe that you do not need to safefully remove flash drives, etc; however, there are times when for some mysterious reason, it will not allow you to safely remove it. I have had to log off to do so. I wonder at times like this that it may ruin your card. My son never bothers to safely remove his camera flash card but it did have a short life span. I don't know if this is why it had a short life span. Some do not believe this will actually ruin the card but moreso the data.

[Negeva]

Check it hasn't been subjected to 'Hide Inactive Icons' in the Taskbar: right click Start button > Properties > taskbar > Hide Inactive Icons > Customize > Select the desired behaviour fro the drop down list.

[ray123]

No, the Customize did not work. I tried that. I set it to always show but it wouldn't bring it back. Perhaps now that is set to always show, it may not revert back.