Safely remove hardware icon missing from the taskbar? I will show you how to restore the safely remove hardware icon easily!
At random times for whatever reason, the “safely remove hardware icon” disappears from my taskbar. Some of us know that its not a good thing to just unplug our USB items without safely removing it via the “safely remove hardware icon” for various reasons.
If it is a mass storage USB device like flash memory or a hard disk, especially in an external enclosure, just pulling the plug could render the device unusable and data loss can follow if there is still some data still in a cache waiting to be written to the device when you just plug it out. By using the “safely remove hardware icon” it ensures that all caches are flushed and the device is in a sleep state and any tasks assigned to it is completed.
Another reason why you should use the “safely remove hardware icon” is that in a USB port, there is a current running through it to your connected device when its in use! So if you just pull out the USB device without the “safely remove hardware icon” the power shock caused by unplugging your device with a current running through it can corrupt it’s data! Using the “safely remove hardware icon” tells Windows to turn off the power to the USB device and then tells you that it is safe to remove the device.
Well lets get right to it with the instructions below. Please leave feedback if this has helped you, thanks 
INSTRUCTIONS
- Click Start > Run > and type in without the quotes: “RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll” ; Then click on OK.
- Now you should see the “Safely Remove Hardware” window pop up.
- Now you can choose the USB device from the list and safely remove it by selecting it and pressing stop. When Windows pops up a balloon saying “Safe To Remove Hardware” then you can remove the device. You will also notice that the “safely remove hardware icon” is now restored back in your taskbar.
You can also create a shortcut to run so that you don’t have to go do it the Start > Run way as shown above:
- Right click on your desktop and click on New > Shortcut. In the “Type The Location Of The Item” space, type in without the quotes: “RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll“
- Then click Next, Now give it a name like “Start Safe Remove Hardware” and click on Finish.
Now when the “safely remove hardware icon” is missing again, simply run the shortcut and remove your USB device easily!
VIDEO TUTORIAL [Please View Fullscreen]
Computer Learning, How To, Missing Safely Remove Hardware Icon, Safely Remove Hardware Icon, Safely Remove Hardware Icon Missing, Video Guide, Video Tutorial
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I’m glad you made a video on this! I’m a 57 year old computer novice and I fixed this blasted problem with your video instructions! Not even my computer wizard nephew could figure this one out! hahah now to brag in his face!
omggggg thxxxxxxx a bunch! this was pissing me off with my ipod!
THANKS A LOT MAN! YOU MY MAN FOR THIS! THIS HAPPEN TO ME A FEW DAYS AGO AND BESTBUY COULDN’T HELP THE DON OUT SO I SAID LET ME TRY GOOGLE AND HERE IT IS IN VIDEO AT THAT!!!!! MUCH PROPS MAN!!!!
How in Hell did you figure this out? This is great! Expect a donation. I am also adding your site to my favorites. (Before now, I considered myself a power user. No longer.)
Along these same lines, I removed drive letters using the safely remove hardware icon and now when I use any USB device I must access through Admin Tools, Comp Management. I can not seem to map the drive letters as in Windows 97 - I’m running XP now. Any suggestions on how I get my drive letters to appear in My Computer again? Thanks
@Paul Scott: You can try the method at this link: USB Drive Letter
Fantastic solution. This problem was driving me crazy.
Thanks a bunch.
This has frustrated me for several months. Great solution, THANKS!
@Dave Pinnington & @Rod J: Thanks for feedback! Glad I could help
Won’t work for my case:
(1) The Safe Remove Icon (SRI) disappears only when I plugging in my Samsung MP3 YP-U3 — this YP-U3 worked ok before, and 2 weeks ago it just went disappeared.
The SRI will appear if I plug in my other USB devices: like external USB hard drive, Sony MP3, Canon digital camera, flash memory card reader, USB memory pen drive… and etc.
(2) Following your instructions, in step #3, what I got was always an empty ““Safe To Remove Hardware” windows, that I had no “device” to choose from at all.
I keep getting the “Safe To Remove Hardware” pop up for my DVD drive on my Notebook and it happends every couple of minutes. How do I get that to stop? I want to more notification on this if possible. I don’t have the disk either to reinstall the DVD drive and the Thinkpad T61 I’m on won’t allow me to unistall the driver :/
@Sherry: Unfortunately it isn’t odd you would get that notification, Some DVD drives give this error in notebooks. Here is 1 of several sites I found on the matter http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/330042-best-way-disable-safely-remove-icon.html All the best.
@DZ45: Unfortunately your MP3 player is getting old and faulty hence it is giving your OS problems when connected to your computer, hence why other devices attached gives you the option to safely remove and your Samsung MP3 YP-U3 does not. It happens
Thankyou very much, usb drive removal now sorted
painlessly might i add
I love you!!!!!!!!! Been trying to solve this for forever!
Will this work for Win98SE? I always had the icon/tool to Safely Remove Hardware; then, whatever I did, it disappeared. Running this elicits no action whatsoever in Win98SE. Anything else to try? Thanks.
@Jan: Try this please and if possible let me know if it worked:
Please be connected to the internet. Go to Device Manager, select View, select View Hidden Devices, and then for each Generic-volume entry under Storage Volumes, right click and select update and let Windows try to find a better driver for the Generic volume.
If Windows says it doesn’t a better driver, that’s okay, but it will probably update at least one of the entries.
Then close down the device manager and reboot. Problem should be gone.
The shortcut to the window is fine and dandy, and the fact that the icon reappears is good too, but with any shut down or restart it is gone again. As convenient as the shortcut is, it’s not what I want. What good does the icon do me after I’ve already removed the drive? Are there any other solutions besides the obvious? I would appreciate any more info anyone may have. Thanks in advance!!!
@PFF: You may need to format your windows and backup your stuff if thats the case or keep searching the net for a solution, good luck!
On one of my numerous computers (XP/SP3), when I SINGLE left click on the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon, available items are shown in a small popup right above the icon (DOUBLE-clicking gives a completely different, larger popup elsewhere onscreen). When I click on the USB thumb drive I want to remove, I get ONLY the audible sound on my XP/SP3 computer WITHOUT the small popup confirming it’s okay to remove the hardware.
I never see any solutions given about restoring the smaller popup after the SINGLE click on the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon.
How is that small popup restored? The solution given above does not work: It gives the LARGE popup option window.
wow!!yehey..thank you..(:
Thank you SO much. Couldn’t find my mom’s “safely remove hardware” symbol in her tray in order to remove her kindle after charging. Now I have it on desktop so she can easily eject the kindle in one easy step. MANY THANKS!!
Thank you so much. i was desperately searching for the tip. many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for such an easy fix! I put a shortcut on my desktop, problem solved!
Thanks, worked like a charm!!
Thank you for this easy fix. The icon still didn’t show in my tray, but was on my desktop. Moved it to Quick Launch, but the icon was only a generic square. Right clicked on it, clicked Properties, and then Change Icon. Got a long list of choices, and found “hotplug.dll” which is the original icon I am used to.
@Ross,
Go to http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and go to the 11th option (11. Enable/Disable Balloon Tips or Disable All). You may want to disable antivirus before you run it. Read the disclaimer on top of site. Download the file and then run it. Let me know how that works for you in restoring the balloon.
Thanks to all for taking time to comment!
Thank you for the link to what appears to be a highly valuable reference!!
Alas, the vbs script did not solve the problem.
It is not that balloon help doesn’t work on my computer, it’s that they all work *except* the notification that it’s safe to remove a USB device.
When I’m ready to remove, say, a thumb drive, the balloon help works fine to announce that option when I scroll the mouse pointer over that icon in the taskbar, left (or right) clicking gives me the appropriate balloon popups to allow me to select the device to remove, but after clicking on the device, I do NOT get the balloon telling me it’s now safe to remove it. I DO get an audible “click” sound that tells me the process has worked. However, if I don’t hear that click sound because of background noise, etc., then I have to start the process again. Of course, if the system has okayed the removal, that device no longer appears, so I know it’s safe, but it’s still a bit of a pain.
Microsoft addresses this issue and offers a downloadable tweak. Yet, when I try to use it, I get the notification that the action would place older version(s) on my computer than the ones already installed!
Nobody seems to know how to solve this annoyance. I do not have this problem on any of my other WXP computers and have no idea what caused this on this one laptop.
Any other ideas would be appreciated! I’m stumped!
Best,
Ross R.
Works great to create the shortcut, but the device that I need to eject is not listed there when I go to use it.
@Ross Rainwater,
No problem on the link. I am sorry to hear the vbs file did not help. Unfortunately with Windows some things break and nothing works to fix, It has happened to me a few times in the past, especially when doing windows updates *gasp*. You could try to risk installing old files over your current ones to see if that would fix it. If I was in your situation I would change the “wav” for the “software disconnect” to a loud wacky sound so no matter what is playing on computer that noise will alert you that the file has indeed been disconnected.
To change your windows sound for disconnect please follow:
Control panel> sounds and audio devices> go to sounds tab at top> under “program events” go to “device disconnect” and click browse to find and change the wav file to wav file you would like to use, there are free tools to convert one form of audio to a wav to use your own if no wavs are available to you presently.
Clear instructions, thank you.
I have the same problem as DZ45 where there is no device to choose from, but I don’t think it’s a problem of the device being too old; I have a brand new Olympus camera that has same problem as other USBs. (The display on the camera indicates that it’s still plugged in and not to remove it, so I’m a little reluctant to just yank it.)
Also, this shortcut trick does not restore the icon on the taskbar.
Any other suggestions?
@Lori:
Thanks for comment
Is your computer old? 3 years old or more?, I am thinking maybe your USB connection that your camera is in on your computer could be worn out, this happens over time, it has happened to me alot as well with different computers, a solution I found that works is connecting a USB hub to a working port and using that.
You can try your Olympus on different USB ports on your computer and see if it works to let you disconnect.
Brilliant !! Now safely disconnected my external hard-drive.
OMG Thanks! My Kindle Touch wouldn’t pop up with any eject or anything. Then again, this is an old work computer as my mom described it -_-’
@Leo @Treebear13: Thanks for leaving a comment :)I am glad I could help