Hi, here is my setup:

AMD 64 4000+
2 gb pc 3200
Fatal1ty a8n sli
2 BFG Geforce 7800 gt oc
xp pro
Maxtor sata 200 gb 8 mg cache

here is the problem I can't remove the safely remove hardware icon and it is asking me to remove my Maxtor hard drive and my system is running perfect how do I get rid of that annoying icon. lol
Thank You Kindly!
Craig

Click Start/Run and type in msconfig and click OK.
Any weird program in the startup that may cause this?
Is it in the Start/All Programs/Startup menu-folder?
It should only be present in the Control Panel.

The icon only appears in the lower right hand corner next to time and norton icons, checked msconfig already and nothing unusual there. The icon is a green arrow pointing lower left and a little grey box underneith it, and when I right click on it it says safely remove hardware and when I double click on it it wants me to safely remove hardware (Maxtor 6L200SO) and when i go to properties and try to update driver it says the latest driver is already installed and I serched every other option it gives me and it wants me to remove my hard drive which is not going to happen lol.
Thank You Kindly
Craig

My computer was the same icon. I just ignore it. It doesn't pop up or anything, I just though it was part of SP2 or something. We both have SATA drives ( I have the WD Raptor 10K RPM) and the icon lets me know I can remove this Safely. yeah right! Hmm, maybe it's just part of XP, or we've both installed our SATAs wrong.

It's not telling you or asking you to remove anything.

It's because you have a USB device plugged in. If you wanted to remove the device while the computer is running, you would then expand that icon, select the device and turn it off. The idea is that it stops all tata transfer between the computer and the device through the USB port before disconnecting it, so that unplugging it doesn't cause damage or corruption to devices/removable storage.

It's purely a part of windows that SHOULD appear any time you have a USB device plugged in. Nothing to worry about. Just ignore it untill you want to unplug it while your computer is on, then use it before removing the device.

AT least, I always though it was just USB. Maybe it happens for SCSI devices too.

Thks Spike, but I'm still a little confused( not hard to do). My HDD is not USB, it's the master HDD ( WD Raptor, plugged into the SATA1 slot). So maybe with SATA drives the icon works too?

Yep, I mostly took it as a "suppose to be there" thing, but just thought it was unusual to "suggest" safely removing your HDD.

Well Spike I guess it works for SATA hard drives too I think your right Kirock because it stays on even with no USB's connected, And yes very unusual for XP to ask to remove my hard drive maybe SLI has somthing to do with this as well. Well thanks alot guys I guess I will ignore for now maybe just xp bug.
Thank You Kindy

Craig

I'm in agreement with Spike. That icon is a way to stop data transfer to/from a hardware item that can be hot swapable. My guess is that Windows belives the drive is able to be disconnected while the computer is running. The physical possibility is of no consequence to the operating system.

Double-clicking on the icon is the way of telling the operating system that you want to disconnect something, so it gives you a list of what it can prepare for disconnection.

In Accessories/Administrative tools/Computer management/disc management, look at the detailed properties for the drive (right click on a drive, select properties) then hardware/properties and all the other places, look for some place where you can specify the drive is NOT removeable, or to switch off the display of the icon. If the SATA drive has it's own hardware driver, that's the most likely place to look.

Also in control panel/system/hardware there's much the same sort of things.

Hi guys, found this forum by Google searching.

I have the same "problem", I have a SATA hard drive and Windows puts that icon in the systray in case I ever want to remove it (this won't happen). I've looked at the device's properties and there's no way to stop the icon from appearing there.

I don't like to "Hide Inactive Icons", so until I find another solution, it's always sitting there, ready to disconnect my hard drive, just an accidental click away. Not a risk I'd like to leave open.

I tried a demo of a program called Icon Remover (which removes that icon from your systray entirely, even if you have other devices which you DO want to remove sometimes), but that's just a workaround, not a solution, and I won't pay for that.

Anyone have some other ideas? There's got to be some way to do it through Windows, whether it involves messing around in the registry or not.

For nForce chipsets, you can add the following to registry:

In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ nvata,

add DWORD DisableRemovable, set to 1. Reboot.

64-bit systems use nvata64. Some chipsets might use nvatabus instead.

This doesn't work with VIA chipsets (driver vide or videX64), the only option I've found for them is to use older drivers that don't support SATA hotplug.

Sounds good, I'll try it, but HOW THE HECK do you find something like that out?

Usually through experience and knowledge, google, or the manufacturers website

I've got the same icon, with my SATA but I guess it's a matter of personal choice, I don't feel it's a problem. You can't accidently remove it. If you double click it it will open and then give you the option of selecting the/a drive and then it will still ask you "Do you want to disconnect this drive?"

I have managed to just ignore this thing, but (and I know many of you will roll your eyes at this one), I am very anal about all my Norton icons being grouped together - this is the only issue it's bee ngiving me lately - it's popping up in the middle of my Nortons loading. Everything else that pops up can do so in whatever order it likes, but I like all 3 of my Norton icons together. I don't know why, I just prefer that. Maybe it's an "neat & orderly" thing with me? I know the order of task tray icons have no bearing on the performance of the programs/items - it's purely a personal preference.

I've tried looking for ways to disable, uninstall (not preferable, just in case I need it one day), or better yet, customize some kind of file that has a prioroty sequence that will allow me to tell the system at startup, to load certain items, first, last, or somewhere in between - and I would make this barstard load dead LAST.

I'm not keen on "hiding" it, but I suppose if it continues to tick me off, I may just resort to trying that for a while, and see how much hassle, trouble, and annoyance the "Hide Inactive Icons" thing becomes.

I'm gonna keep looking, and if I discover anything, I'll post it here.



WTW

This worked perfectly, thanks buddy!

WTWASP what you're looking for is far more control than Windows itslef will ever give you, you'll need to find a 3rd party app, if one exists. Good luck!

I had the same exact little annoying problem for a very long time using an ecs motherboard (my buddy had it on an asus too), until I found out what actually Causes it. When you first built your computer (or whoever did) you probably used the driver disk that came along with the motherboard like you're supposed to. Well, turns out that the Nvidia drivers for the IDE (it also controls SATA) are some of the worst ever. When installing the drivers, keep it from installing the IDE drivers and let Windows take care of that task (it's actually better than the Nvidia drivers, they even admitted it). Install all of the drivers you need except the IDE drivers and you should never have a problem with that stupid icon. Hope this helps, at least you know what causes it now.

here's kelly's website for tweeking xp and over 500 tips, tricks and tweaks
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
and also
doug knox's site:
http://www.dougknox.com/index.html

another way is:
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).

I think this is excactly what has happened on my machine. I have tried to uninstall the drivers through windows and although it seems to have worked, the machine reboots, but when its up, the icon is back. How can I get rid of those drivers without formatting the PC and re-loading Windows?