How to "Safely Remove" USB Hard Drives

I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
"Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
the hard drives don't. Please help!!

If you right-click the drive in Windows Explorer, you'll have the option to
safely remove the drive.

Dale

<> wrote in message
news: ps.com...
>I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
> Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
> The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
> "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
> in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
> the hard drives don't. Please help!!
>

Unfortunately, this doesn't work. I've tried. When I right-click
either of the drives, my only options are:

Open
Explore
Search
Open AutoPlay...
-------------------------
Share...
Sweep with Spy Sweeper (TM)
-------------------------
Format
-------------------------
Copy
-------------------------
Create Shortcut
Rename
-------------------------
Properties

On Feb 3, 8:44 pm, "Dale" <nos...@nospam.ever> wrote:
> If you right-click the drive in Windows Explorer, you'll have the option to
> safely remove the drive.
>
> Dale
>
> <bradleyRa...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news: ps.com...
>
> >I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
> > Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
> > The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
> > "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
> > in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
> > the hard drives don't. Please help!!

<> wrote

>I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
> Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
> The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
> "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
> Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
> in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
> the hard drives don't. Please help!!

If you look at the device properties under Disk Drives in device manager on
the policy tab you'll see you cannot set them up for write caching (hence
the need for safely remove is not necessary)- the option for "Optimize for
quick removal" is selected. If you select the "Optimize for performance
option, it will revert back after the dialog box is closed. It's the
drivers Vista has for those devices.

I have two USB drives, both would allow for write caching under XP, but only
one does under Vista.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

On Feb 4, 1:04 am, "Rock" <r...@nospam.net> wrote:
> <bradleyRa...@gmail.com> wrote
>
> >I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
> > Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
> > The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
> > "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
> > Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
> > in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
> > the hard drives don't. Please help!!
>
> If you look at the device properties under Disk Drives in device manager on
> the policy tab you'll see you cannot set them up for write caching (hence
> the need for safely remove is not necessary)- the option for "Optimize for
> quick removal" is selected. If you select the "Optimize for performance
> option, it will revert back after the dialog box is closed. It's the
> drivers Vista has for those devices.
>
> I have two USB drives, both would allow for write caching under XP, but only
> one does under Vista.
>
> --
> Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

Thank you!

You're welcome.

<> wrote

> On Feb 4, 1:04 am, "Rock" <r...@nospam.net> wrote:
>> <bradleyRa...@gmail.com> wrote
>>
>> >I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
>> > Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
>> > The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
>> > "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
>> > Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
>> > Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
>> > in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
>> > the hard drives don't. Please help!!
>>
>> If you look at the device properties under Disk Drives in device manager
>> on
>> the policy tab you'll see you cannot set them up for write caching (hence
>> the need for safely remove is not necessary)- the option for "Optimize
>> for
>> quick removal" is selected. If you select the "Optimize for performance
>> option, it will revert back after the dialog box is closed. It's the
>> drivers Vista has for those devices.
>>
>> I have two USB drives, both would allow for write caching under XP, but
>> only
>> one does under Vista.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

Did that solve the problem?
Not having a "safely remove" function, does this mean I can safely unplug
the USB drive when the light is still on?
There is no official info on MS vista official knowledge base.

Thanks.

"" wrote:

> On Feb 4, 1:04 am, "Rock" <r...@nospam.net> wrote:
> > <bradleyRa...@gmail.com> wrote
> >
> > >I have two Acomdata USB hard drives that I cannot "Safely Remove" from
> > > Vista. I am NOT having the "Can't stop because it's in use" problem.
> > > The problem is that they appear as "Hard Disk Drives" instead of
> > > "Devices with Removable Storage", so they are not one of the "Safely
> > > Remove Hardware" choices. In XP, they both appeared in the "Safely
> > > Remove Hardware" menu but in Vista, they don't. I have tested plugging
> > > in a flash drive, and that does appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" but
> > > the hard drives don't. Please help!!
> >
> > If you look at the device properties under Disk Drives in device manager on
> > the policy tab you'll see you cannot set them up for write caching (hence
> > the need for safely remove is not necessary)- the option for "Optimize for
> > quick removal" is selected. If you select the "Optimize for performance
> > option, it will revert back after the dialog box is closed. It's the
> > drivers Vista has for those devices.
> >
> > I have two USB drives, both would allow for write caching under XP, but only
> > one does under Vista.
> >
> > --
> > Rock [MVP - User/Shell]
>
> Thank you!
>
>