I'm using Vista Premium with quite some stuff connected to the notebook through a USB-hub connected to one of the USB ports.

Each item that is connected directly to one of the USB ports on the notebook can be removed safely in the proper way by hitting the remove safely icon in the systray.

Some screenshots below. One of the 4 USB ports is connected to a USB stick (letter I). Another one of the 4 USB ports is connected to a 7-port Hub. Connected to the HUB are 4 HD's L, M, N, V and a second external DVD-RW drive.

However under safely remove I can "see" only 2 items: the USB stick (I), and the HUB (mass storage). I cannot unfold that last one to remove safely the items connected to it. I mean the only way an item can be removed safely is when it is connected directly to one of the USB ports of the laptop. If I try to remove safely the whole Hub it always says busy cannot remove. Which means of course that at that time I'm trying to remove safely 4 or 5 items at a time with one click: all the one's that are connected to the HUB.

Is there a way to remove an item like a HD specially in another way ? Is this a well known Vista bug ?

Hello JimB007...

In My Computer, right click on the device you want to remove and choose "Safely Remove".

wannabe1

Thanks, I wish it were that simple. For some reason as you can see, I don't have that option in my R-click menu from "My computer". how do I get that option there ?

This post has been edited by JimB007: Jul 5 2008, 09:55 AM

Besides that the option Safely Remove in the R-click menu from "My Computer", only appears for those items that also appear in the "safely remove" menu option in the systray.

As proof, I connected another USB stick with protected PW partition (W, X). Now as you can see the option Safely Remove for that item appeared in the systray (L-click on the Safely Remove icon). So if it is available there it will also be present in the R-click menu for the same item under "My Computer". Otherwise that option is not available in the My Computer R-click menu.

not available because also not available in systray


available because also available in systray !!
>>>>

I think this is a serious bug. Vista does not seem to be able to safely remove items from my 7-HUB (brand : "D-Link" > so no cheap stuff). The items work perfectly but cannot be removed unless in an unsafe "alltogether way", because there is no way I can remove the HUB safely with everything connected to it.



This post has been edited by JimB007: Jul 5 2008, 10:34 AM

It's not a Vista bug so far as I know. I have two 7-port bubs connected to my main Vista machine (Ultimate) and one 4-port connected to my lappy running Home Premium...both work just fine. I use Rosewill, Ulta, and Microsoft hubs.

Does typing %windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll into the Run Command window allow you to remove the devices?

Just trying to figure out where the problem may be...........

There has been a few issues with USB on vista systems. Enough in fact for Microsoft to release a cumulative update.

See Microsoft KB 941600

Do you have SP1 installed this also fixes a lot of USB issues.

That's the problem everything that's connected on those Hubs works fine, and as you can see they are all visible and also under Disk Managment where I can even change drive letters and so on. I remember on XP with exactly the same 7-HUB, I could see and still can see (c'se I'm running XP on another machine), the complete USB and HUB trees by R-clicking the icon in the systray and everything just lined up vertically by L-clicking the icon in the systray. I'm gonna try that command that I used sometimes too when in XP the wellknown bug of the disappearing icons in the systray took place and the remove button wasn't present in the systray.

and as BSOD Warrior mnetioned, yes, I have had 2 or 3 USB updates after SP1 for Vista I guess and installed them all.

EDIT: in these screenshots you can see that everything on that mass storage (hub) is stilll not visible while typing that run command, and is in fact the same window if I would R-click the safely remove icon in the systray. Remember the W and X is from the 2nd stick, where the I is from the 1st stick. These 2 all able to remove from the R-click context menu in "My Computer".



To my astonishment, and now I realize that what you see as "mass storage" is not the 7-port hub but another 4-port hub that i connected directly to a usb port on my laptap and on that 4-port hub I connected the stick (I), and the stick (W, X > where the W is called CD-Drive under "My Computer" because it is a PW protected area of the stick). So maybe it's the 7-port HUB, allthough difficult to imagine, since everything works exept the remove safely option. So the 7-port hub isn't visible at all.

Now if I disconnect everything from my laptop (the 2 sticks connected to the 4-port hub and the hub too), except the 7-port Hub with the 4 HD's attached on it (and spinning BTW), the safely remove icon dissapears from the systray. If I run that command, I get this !!


Another weird thing is that after I've disconnected that Hub and I reconnect it, it very shortly appears in the systray but immediately vanbishes back again, whether there is something connected to the hub or not.

This post has been edited by JimB007: Jul 7 2008, 03:15 AM

I would try downloading and installing the update mentioned in my previous post.

Is the USB Hub a powered USB hub?

i haven't played with vista enough to know if this option is there...but in XP you can "optimize" removable storage for quick removal which means you don't need to do the "safely remove" business to begin with....the only reason to do the safely remove stuff is when you've got write cache enabled....write caching basically saves everything that you send to the removable media locally untill you safely remove the device which can speed some things up...i find it annoying to have to click something to pull it out of my computer...so i disable write caching on all of my USB media on my machine

in XP - right click on a drive (any drive) and choose the hardware tab...then find the device in question in the list and click properties, then go to the policy tab and disable write caching
no idea if that still works in vista but you could check and see

Yes...it works the same way in Vista....

Do you mean the update you gave wasn't among the (almost daily) update warningd I get, and that I conequently DL and install ? Yes it is a powered hub. Allthough I'm 200% sure I have a legal Vista Home Premium copy that came with my IBM Lenovo notebook, I noticed that to be able to DL that KB941600 package I should allow that WGA plugin to be installed. I'm not to fond of MS checking each and every time to see if I have a legal copy even if I have one. This checking is yet another ET phone home attempt that I don't want.

Meanwhile I checked and the plugin seemed to be there months b4 I bought the notebook (checked the log file of the plugin), so probabily when the Vista OS was installed in the first place.

This post has been edited by JimB007: Jul 8 2008, 01:52 AM

I checked it and write caching is not anabled on any of the 4 external drives (L, M, N, V). I think that option is standard unchecked BTW, since I don't recall having tampered with it. So you I can simply unplug it, after a copy/move job is done ?

I've replaced under warranty my two 7-Port Hubs from D-Link. And now I can safely remove all the stuff that's connected to them, also everything shows up in the safely remove tree you get when you R-click on the systray icon.

Good thing from D-Link c'se it did not read on the package of the previous Hubs that they were suitable for Vista, so at first the shop said sorry no warranty c'se it's not written in the instruction manual and/or the package that the Hubs are suited for Vista. I contacted D-Link directly and they shipped me 2 brand new 7-Port hubs. Luckily c'se they're not cheap. The weird and strange thing is that it's still not on the package (that's slightly different BTW) that they're suitable for Vista. Even the type number on the hubs is the same as b4 (DUB-H7).