How can I safely remove USB device from laptop when no “safely remove hardware” icon shown?

amoeba: How can I safely remove USB device from laptop when no “safely remove hardware” icon shown?
It’s an MP3 player and it’s been detected by the computer (shows up in Device Manager & My Computer). On the other hand, if that icon shows, but no device is listed, how can the device be removed safely?
I did customise the taskbar to show the icon but still not working. I ran command to show up “safely remove hardware” window, my mp3 player is not listed. I was charging the device only, does it mean the icon only shows up when device is used in data transfer instead of charging?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Mr Renee
turn off your computer then take it out

Answer by andy g
just pull it out. your stuff will be fine

Answer by Rigo
You sure it doesn’t show? Right click on the Remove hardware icon on the taskbar, and select “safely remove hardware”, hit OK, and it should be done.

Though this might just be a formality, and you might not need to do it. If you have your music backed up (just in case), and your MP3 player isn’t playing or syncing anything, then you can probably just yank it out.

Answer by anonymous
DON’T pull it out when it is still connected because this will damage your MP3. Turn off the computer first them take it out…

=]

Answer by Colinc
The warning is only to prevent someone removing the device while it is still saving files. This can be a problem with large drives, and safe removal either flushes any outstanding data to the drive, or warns you not to touch it. For normal use it means nothing. You can remove uit any time, provided you know it has saved all you want.

Answer by Mark
Technically you can remove it without any damage to your files *as long as it’s not being written to*. There’s no way for it to damage your files unless it’s actually being used by the computer when you pull it out.

Still, it’s better to use the remove option. It may just be hidden:

1.Right-click within the notification area, and then click Properties.
2.On the Taskbar tab, click Customize.
3. Select Safely remove hardware, and in the Behavior column, unclick Always hide.

Answer by drek_ocp
Make sure you are not accessing the external device ( ex: playing the songs or a open file ).
Normally Microsoft Windows XP comes with the default setting for USB external storages “Optimized for removal” Therefore you can remove it without clicking the safely remove icon (Other setting is “Optimized for performance” – But this setting you have to make manually- so no need to worry). The other way is that you can right click on the external device inside the “My Computer” you can “Eject” the storage.

Answer by Ricky
Hi! please DONT pull it out when the computer is running–it will get damaged–anything attached to USB port must show in right hand side icon tray–if the safely remove icon isnt shown then simply shut of the computer and remove it——cheers!

Answer by jalford12
If your OS is XP or later then wait for the device to finish updating any files then just pull it out.

If running Windows 98, then in Windows Explorer, right click on the device and select “eject”, wait for the device to vanish off the window then pull the plug.

Answer by norlore
The “stop this device” is primarily used for hard drives, what it does is flush the cache and write the data to where ever it is going (windows drive caching or the disk cache)

Windows does not cache any data for portable flash drives it detects properly

If you go to your control panel / device manager tree, you will see it there, right click and select properties, flash drives and hard drives can be “optimized” for fast removal (windows will write all data immediately)

Just don’t pull it while it is reading or writing