I have Vista Ultimate. When I put my thumb drive into a USB slot it accepts
it as a drive, but there is no icon to allow me to remove it. Other PCs
running Home Premium have the icon. Why is mine missing and how do I get it
back?
Regards
This sadly is another still unfixed, annoying bug in Windows. I see a
similar problem. Worse, sometimes, but not always, I can have multiple
USB devies attached and running. When it comes time to unmount them
Windows still nags the device is in use where I've cleared ALL
applications. Sometimes if I have multiple devices running regardless
if neither is any longer in use Windows (and it isn't just Vista) will
still say it is. Sometimes removing one device ahead of the other will
let you safely unmount, other times I repeatedly tried a half a dozen
times or more and finally dumb old Windows lets me unmount.
If you have a lot of icons on the task tray have you tried clicking on
the little white colored left pointing arrow to show hidden icons?
I suspect what happens is the driver doesn't always get loaded. I've
seen it missing in action sometimes myself.
The good news is you still can safely shut down doing a force unmount
if you're careful. Just wait at least a few minutes be sure all your
applications are closed, listen for the drive and be sure it isn't
using its read/write heads, (obvious clicking sounds only present when
the drive is actively doing something) then just shut down if you only
hear a soft constant hum or whirl sound which is just the drive
spinning. I haven't damaged any drive yet doing that, but agree it is
annoying that Windows so often with so many things simply is broke.
One of the big offenders of getting false "can't safely unmount" is
Windows Explorer. If you have it open, even to a different drive.
Close it then try again to unmount.
