Safely Remove Hardware: where did the icon go? How do I safely remove hardware without it?

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Worked first time on Win XP Home. That will save me so much time faffing with unhappy Windows error messages. Cheers!! I've made a shortcut and it works too. No complaints here :)

i tried this to fix my computer worked a treat and put back the icon thank you

Brill, perfect fix!
Icon has not reappeared but created shortcut as indicated and this works a treat.
Many Thanx

We use an external enclosure with 5 SATA disks that was first recognized by our Windows 2003 SP2 server as a set of removable devices. Now the icon is gone and the disks are behaving as non-removable ones. Even when I use the solution above the list of removable devices is empty. Any hints would be appreciated.

I have a Nokia N95 8gb. When plugging it in to my xp laptop, PC Suite runs perfectly despite the phone not showing up on My Computer! I assume that because it doesn't show up on My Computer the Safely Remove Hardware button is missing. I have to shut down my laptop before unplugging my phone to avoid damaging it. The Safely Remove Button used to show up and the phone also used to show under My Computer until I was prompted by PC Suite to update the software. All other usb devices which I plug into my laptop show up on My Computer and the Safely Remove Harware button works. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks a lot. PS: I have tried the fix mentioned above but it doesn't work due to the fact that the phone doesn't show up on My Computer.

i'm using the naevius usb antivirus that has feature "safely remove" for usb devices.
there is a website: http://www.naevius.com/usb_antivirus.htm

Great, just what I've been looking for! I use my USB drive at the library sometimes and there is no "safely remove" icon; and right-clicking is disabled so I can't even "eject" the drive. Thanks a bunch!

Does anyone have an answer for doing the reverse? Ever since I upgraded to XP, I have that stupid icon and I do not need, use or want it. I've seen installable programs that allow you to remove it, but I don't want to have to install yet another one use application to do something that should be possible with a simple registry edit or something.

I found accidentally a simple solution to the missing "Safely Remove Hardware" icon. Turning the "Removable Storage" service from "Manual" to "Automatic" will keep the icon in the Tray at all times.
Go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Scroll down on the right panel until the Removable Storage service is noted. Right click, choose "Properties". On the "General" tab change the "Startup type" by pushing the down arrow and selecting "Automatic". Do Apply or OK. I hope it works for you.
P.S.: I still do not know why it went away on the first place.

I am posting a comment quite late, but today was the first time I experienced this issue and came across the post.
Firstly, let me tell you that the article was good and resolved the issue.

You can also try out the following :
1. Kill explorer.exe process from task manager.
2. Restore it back by creating "New Task" explorer.exe from Task Manager.
3. This should bring the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon back in the system tray.

It worked for me, let me know your experience.

Thanks

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